Chapter 2 - The Woman Three Blocks Away

Lucian did not wait for his coat.

He walked out of the ballroom in his tuxedo.

Snow landed on his shoulders.

Walter followed.

So did I.

I had no idea whether I was still employed.

At that moment, I did not care.

Serena came after us.

“Lucian.”

He kept walking.

“Lucian, please.”

He stopped beneath the stone archway.

“Did you visit my mother?”

Serena’s face was wet with tears.

“Yes.”

“Did you lie to me afterward?”

“Yes.”

He nodded once.

Then continued down the street.

The church was small.

Almost hidden between two older buildings.

Walter unlocked a side door.

Inside, only six candles were burning.

A woman stood near the altar.

Silver had entered her dark hair.

But Lucian recognized her before she turned around.

His entire body stopped.

“Mom?”

Marianne Vescari faced him.

For one second, she looked thirteen years younger.

Not because her face changed.

Because she looked at Lucian like he was still a boy.

“My son.”

He crossed the chapel.

Then stopped two feet from her.

He did not hug her.

Not yet.

“Twenty-one years.”

Marianne lowered her eyes.

“I know.”

“You were alive.”

“Yes.”

“You knew where I was.”

“Yes.”

His voice cracked.

“Then why didn’t you come back?”

She reached toward him.

Lucian stepped away.

That hurt her more than anything he could have said.

Walter closed the door behind us.

Serena remained outside.

Marianne noticed.

“She came.”

Lucian turned.

“You expected her?”

“No.”

Marianne looked toward the door.

“But she came to see me last spring.”

Lucian’s jaw tightened.

“What did she want?”

Marianne answered carefully.

“To warn me.”

I looked at Walter.

Even he seemed surprised.

Lucian stared at his mother.

“Warn you about what?”

“Vincent found me.”

Silence.

Marianne continued.

“Serena arrived before his men did.”

Lucian looked toward the church door.

“She told me her father knew the town where I was living.”

“What else?”

“She gave me cash.”

Serena had said nothing about that.

“A passport.”

Lucian’s expression changed slightly.

“And a train ticket.”

“Why?”

“Because she said if Vincent reached me first, I would disappear for real.”

Lucian looked at Walter.

“Did you know this?”

“No.”

Marianne shook her head.

“I didn’t tell Walter everything.”

“Why not?”

“Because Serena begged me not to.”

Lucian laughed once.

There was no humor in it.

“So she protected you and lied to me.”

“Yes.”

“That makes no sense.”

Marianne looked directly at him.

“It will.”

She walked to a wooden pew.

A small black bag rested there.

From it, she removed an old photograph.

Vincent Bellini.

Much younger.

Standing beside Lucian’s uncle Matteo.

Between them was a shipping container marked with the Vescari crest.

On the back, someone had written a date.

Two days before Matteo’s death.

Lucian studied it.

“What am I looking at?”

“Your uncle discovered Vincent was using Vescari cargo routes for transactions your grandfather had never approved.”

“Illegal money?”

Marianne nodded.

“Matteo planned to expose him.”

“And you saw Vincent get into Matteo’s car.”

“Yes.”

“Did you see him kill Matteo?”

“No.”

Lucian looked at her sharply.

Marianne did not look away.

“I saw them argue.”

“About what?”

“The container in that photograph.”

Then she said something none of us expected.

“Matteo wasn’t alone when he died.”

Walter’s head lifted.

Lucian frowned.

“The police report said he was.”

“The police report was changed.”

“Who was with him?”

Marianne’s eyes moved toward me.

I felt my stomach tighten.

“Your mother knew,” she said.

“My mother?”

Marianne nodded.

“Claire’s mother was there that night.”

I forgot how to breathe.

“My mother was a school secretary.”

Marianne looked at me sadly.

“No, Claire.”

“She wasn’t.”

I stepped backward.

“My mother died when I was sixteen.”

“I know.”

“How do you know her?”

Marianne reached under her blouse.

She pulled out a silver chain.

Hanging from it was half of a small oval pendant.

I had the other half.

It was in a box in my bedroom at the estate.

My mother had given it to me before she died.

Marianne whispered:

“Sarah Hayes was the reason I survived 2007.”

Lucian looked at me.

I looked at Walter.

Walter looked genuinely shaken.

Then someone knocked once on the church door.

Not loudly.

Three slow taps.

Marianne went pale.

“That’s not Serena.”

Lucian moved between his mother and the door.

The handle began to turn.

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And Walter whispered:

“Vincent found us.”