Chapter 10 - NORA’S LAST SECRET
Nora Reed had raised Liam from infancy.
She had protected him.
Loved him.
And lied to him.
When Liam confronted her about Lydia’s eleven missing months, Nora broke down.
“I promised her,” she said.
“Promised her what?”
“That you would never grow up carrying the fear she carried.”
Nora opened an old metal box.
Inside were postcards Liam had never seen.
Lydia had written them from St. Matthew’s.
My beautiful boy.
Nora says you smiled today.
I wish I had seen it.
Another:
Robert will find us someday. I still believe that.
And another:
If I become too sick, tell Liam I did not leave him willingly.
Liam’s eyes blurred.
“Why didn’t you give these to me?”
“Because every time I tried, I remembered what happened.”
Nora revealed that Lydia had briefly escaped St. Matthew’s.
She came to Nora’s apartment late one rainy night.
Thin.
Weak.
Terrified.
She held Liam for almost an hour.
Then someone knocked downstairs.
Lydia panicked.
She told Nora that men connected to Howard Hale had been watching the building.
She left voluntarily to protect Liam.
Three weeks later, Nora was told Lydia had died.
“But she left something,” Nora said.
She handed Liam a small brass key.
“For what?”
“I never knew.”
Attached to the key was a metal tag.
E.H.
Robert recognized the initials.
“Evelyn Hale.”
Nora nodded.
“Your grandmother met Lydia before she died.”
Liam stared at the key.
May you like
The dead women had been trying to expose the same secret.
And somehow, eighteen years later, they were still leading him toward it.
