Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN WHO KNEW MY MOTHER
For several seconds, nobody in the ballroom moved.
The orchestra had stopped.
Lucia stood beneath the chandelier in her borrowed blue dress, one hand still lifted from the final movement of the dance. Her little stuffed rabbit sat on the marble floor beside her.
And Adrian Vale was staring at me like I had just opened a door he had spent his entire life searching for.
I tightened my grip around Lucia's shoulder.
"You're mistaken."
Adrian didn't blink.
"No."
The elderly woman behind him took one trembling step forward.
I knew immediately that she was the person everyone in Boston called Eleanor Vale.
Adrian's grandmother.
The woman whose name appeared on hospital wings, university buildings, charitable foundations, and newspaper headlines.
She looked nothing like the photographs.
In those photographs, Eleanor Vale had always appeared untouchable.
Tonight, she looked broken.
Her eyes were fixed on Lucia.
Then on me.
Then back at Lucia.
"Rose," she whispered.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
"That's not my name."
"I know."
Her voice cracked.
"That was my sister's name."
A murmur swept through the ballroom.
Celeste Winthrop finally stepped forward.
"This is ridiculous."
Nobody listened to her.
Eleanor kept walking.
Adrian tried to stop her.
"Grandmother."
She brushed his hand away.
"Let me."
She came within a few feet of Lucia.
My daughter instinctively moved behind me.
Eleanor noticed.
She lowered herself slowly, despite her age and the expensive gown beneath her.
"I frightened you."
Lucia peeked around my hip.
"A little."
Eleanor smiled through tears.
"I'm sorry."
Then she looked at me.
"Where did your mother die?"
"Three years ago."
"Where?"
"Boston."
Eleanor closed her eyes.
"Of course."
That frightened me.
"What does that mean?"
She opened her eyes.
"It means she came home."
I felt cold.
"My mother never told me she had family here."
"She couldn't."
"Why?"
Eleanor glanced toward Adrian.
Then toward the crowd.
"Because somebody made sure she believed she could never safely return."
The ballroom erupted into whispers.
Celeste snapped, "Eleanor, this is a charity gala, not some family therapy session."
Eleanor turned.
The temperature in the room seemed to drop.
"Be quiet, Celeste."
Celeste's mouth fell open.
Nobody spoke to Celeste Winthrop like that.
Apparently, Eleanor Vale did.
Adrian approached me.
"Can we talk somewhere private?"
"No."
His eyebrows lifted.
"You don't trust me."
"I don't know you."
"You know my name."
"I know the name printed on buildings."
His expression changed.
For the first time, I saw something beneath the billionaire's polished exterior.
Fear.
Not anger.
Fear.
"Your mother told you nothing?"
"She told me enough."
"About us?"
"There was no us."
He looked at Lucia.
"She taught you that dance?"
Lucia nodded.
Adrian swallowed.
"Does she know the second part?"
I froze.
"What second part?"
Lucia looked up at me.
"Mama?"
Adrian stared at my daughter.
Then he whispered something that made my blood run cold.
"Your mother used to sing the melody after the dance."
I couldn't move.
Because Lucia had been doing exactly that for months.
A little humming pattern.
Three notes.
A pause.
Two notes.
I had never thought anything of it.
I had assumed it was simply something she invented.
Adrian noticed my expression.
"You recognize it."
I nodded slowly.
"My daughter hums it."
Eleanor covered her mouth.
"Oh, Rose."
She said it again.
Not as if she were naming my mother.
As if she were speaking to someone she had lost.
Then she reached into her handbag.
She pulled out a small black velvet box.
My instincts screamed at me to step back.
Instead, Eleanor opened it.
Inside was a gold pendant.
A tiny star surrounded by a circle.
I had seen it before.
My mother had worn one exactly like it.
After she died, I thought I had buried it with her.
My knees weakened.
"Where did you get that?"
Eleanor's eyes filled with tears.
"My sister wore one."
I stared at the pendant.
"Where is the other?"
Eleanor looked directly at Lucia.
"I believe your daughter has it."
I turned toward Lucia.
"Baby?"
Lucia reached into the pocket of her dress.
She pulled out a tiny gold chain.
My mother's pendant.
The room disappeared.
I heard someone gasp.
Adrian stepped backward.
Eleanor began sobbing.
And Celeste—
Celeste went completely pale.
Because she recognized the pendant too.
I saw it in her eyes.
She knew something.
"Celeste," I said.
She didn't answer.
"What do you know about my mother?"
She turned toward the exit.
I caught her wrist.
She jerked away.
"Don't touch me."
"You knew her."
"No."
"You recognized the pendant."
"I've seen it in photographs."
"Which photographs?"
She stared at me.
Then she smiled.
It was the first time that night she looked genuinely afraid.
"The photographs your mother never wanted anyone to find."
Before I could answer, the ballroom doors opened.
Three men in dark suits entered.
Adrian's expression changed instantly.
"Who are they?"
One of the men approached him.
"Mr. Vale, we have a problem."
"What?"
"The police just arrived."
My stomach tightened.
"For what?"
The man looked at me.
Then at Lucia.
Then back at Adrian.
"They're asking about Rose Bennett."
Silence.
Adrian's face hardened.
"Why?"
The man lowered his voice.
"Because someone just turned over evidence claiming Rose Bennett didn't die three years ago."
I couldn't breathe.
"What?"
He looked at me.
"Someone claims she was murdered."
May you like
And then Eleanor whispered the words that shattered whatever was left of my certainty.
"She was."
