Chapter 10 - Evelyn)
Claire heard Daniel grab her hand in the darkness.
Marcus whispered, "There's another stairwell."
"Where?"
"End of the hall."
Footsteps sounded below.
More than one person.
Daniel switched on his phone flashlight.
Marcus led them into the corridor.
They ran.
At the far end, a narrow stairwell descended toward the rear of the building.
Claire's phone vibrated.
Detective Ortiz.
She whispered, "Third floor. Multiple people entered."
Ortiz answered.
"We see them. Stay inside."
A gunshot echoed downstairs.
Claire flinched.
Daniel pulled her behind a wall.
Marcus looked terrified.
"They're not police."
Ortiz's voice came through the phone.
"State troopers are entering now."
Another shot.
Then shouting.
Claire heard boots pounding through the building.
Marcus led them into an old laundry room.
A door at the rear opened to the woods.
They stepped outside.
Cold night air hit Claire's face.
Flashlights moved between trees.
Daniel whispered, "Which way?"
Marcus pointed toward an old service road.
They started running.
Then someone stepped from behind a parked van.
Claire froze.
A woman.
Thin.
Silver-streaked dark hair.
Blue coat.
Gold buttons.
Claire stopped breathing.
The woman stared at her.
For a moment neither moved.
Then Claire whispered the word she had imagined saying for twenty years.
"Mom?"
Evelyn's face broke.
"Claire."
Claire ran.
She did not remember crossing the space between them.
One second she was standing beside Daniel.
The next she was in her mother's arms.
Evelyn smelled like cold air and lavender.
Claire began crying so hard she could not speak.
Evelyn held her face in both hands.
"Look at you."
Claire laughed through tears.
"You remember me."
"Always."
"You remember me."
"Always."
Claire touched her mother's hair.
Her cheeks.
Her shoulders.
As if Evelyn might vanish again if Claire did not confirm every part of her was real.
"You were alive."
"I'm sorry."
"Why didn't you come home?"
"I tried."
Claire's happiness cracked open into years of pain.
"I waited for you."
"I know."
"I thought you were dead."
"I know."
"Dad buried you."
Evelyn closed her eyes.
"I know."
Claire stepped back.
"How could you let me believe it?"
Evelyn's face filled with grief.
"I didn't have a choice."
"Everyone says that."
"I wrote to you."
"I never got anything."
"I called your school."
"No one told me."
"I came to Boston twice."
Claire stopped.
"When?"
"When you were fourteen."
Claire remembered something.
A woman standing across the street from her school.
A woman a teacher had quickly moved away from.
Claire's mouth opened.
"That was you."
Evelyn nodded.
"I wasn't well. I had no legal identity. Marcus's documents still classified me as mentally incompetent."
"Why didn't you go to the police?"
"I did."
"What happened?"
"They called Richard."
Claire closed her eyes.
"Of course."
Evelyn touched her arm.
"The second time I came, your housekeeper disappeared three days later."
"Mrs. Coleman?"
"You remember her?"
Claire did.
Mrs. Coleman had left without goodbye.
Richard said her sister was sick.
"What happened to her?"
"I don't know."
Evelyn looked toward the dark woods.
"That is why I stopped trying."
Claire's anger faded into horror.
"You thought people were being punished for helping you."
"Yes."
Behind them, Marcus approached slowly.
Evelyn's expression hardened.
Claire noticed.
"You don't trust him."
Evelyn looked at Marcus.
"I trust him to feel guilty."
Marcus lowered his eyes.
Daniel stood several feet away.
"My father says he helped you."
"He did."
"Did he hurt Anna?"
Evelyn's face changed.
"No."
Claire asked, "Then who did?"
Evelyn looked toward the building.
"Someone who knew Anna had found Victoria."
Claire froze.
"Victoria is alive."
"Yes."
"Where?"
"I don't know anymore."
"You met her?"
"Once."
"When?"
"Eleven years ago."
"At St. Orison?"
Evelyn nodded.
"She helped me escape."
Claire's mind raced.
"Then the Red Ledger."
"Victoria has the oldest section."
"Where is your section?"
Evelyn looked at the locket.
"Not here."
Claire touched the bronze oval.
"The locket?"
"Not exactly."
State troopers emerged from the building.
Detective Ortiz came toward them.
"Everyone okay?"
Claire nodded.
Ortiz looked at Evelyn.
Then at Claire.
"Your mother?"
Claire almost laughed at how impossible the sentence sounded.
"Yes."
Ortiz glanced toward Marcus.
"Three men were detained inside. One is the man from the blue house."
Claire turned.
"Who are they?"
Ortiz's expression was grim.
"Private security."
"For whom?"
"That's the problem."
One of the troopers approached with a wallet recovered from a suspect.
Ortiz read the business card.
Her face changed.
Claire stepped closer.
"What?"
Ortiz showed her.
The company name was Mercer Strategic Protection.
Rachel's family name.
Claire stared.
"Rachel?"
Evelyn whispered, "No."
Claire looked at her mother.
"You know them?"
Evelyn nodded.
"Henry Mercer founded it."
Stephen's father.
The psychiatrist.
"But Henry is dead."
"Yes."
"Then who owns it now?"
Ortiz checked the corporate registration on her phone.
She looked up.
May you like
"Someone named Marianne Mercer."
Rachel's mother.
