Chapter 3 - THE PENDANT MY FATHER DIED WEARING
I picked up the pendant.
Heavy silver.
Black enamel.
A small lion under the letter M.
My father wore it every day.
He was wearing it the night of the crash.
At least I believed he was.
I looked at Megan.
“Where did you get this?”
She froze.
“That belongs to Noah.”
“Where did he get it?”
She adjusted her son against her shoulder.
“My mother.”
My chest tightened.
“Who was your mother?”
Megan looked confused.
“Claire Foster.”
Nancy went completely still.
I saw it.
“What?”
Nancy looked at Megan.
“What was your mother’s maiden name?”
“Foster.”
“No.”
Nancy’s voice shook.
“Before that.”
Megan frowned.
“Delaney.”
Nancy sat down.
I had seen Nancy face gunmen without blinking.
Now her hands trembled.
“Claire Delaney.”
Megan looked between us.
“You knew her?”
Nancy answered:
“She worked here.”
Silence.
“When?”
“Twenty years ago.”
Megan stared.
“My mother was a nurse.”
“Yes.”
“She never worked for mafia families.”
Nancy looked at me.
Then back at Megan.
“She was your father’s private nurse.”
My pulse changed.
Not Megan’s father.
Mine.
“Claire worked for my father?”
Nancy nodded.
“Six months.”
Megan looked stunned.
“She never told me.”
“She left after the crash.”
Of course.
Everything came back to that night.
I held up the pendant.
“How did she get this?”
Megan’s eyes darkened.
“I don’t know.”
“She gave it to Noah?”
“She gave it to me before she died.”
“When?”
“Three years ago.”
“What did she say?”
Megan hesitated.
“Keep it until someone powerful asks where it came from.”
I almost laughed.
Claire had known.
Megan continued.
“I thought she was being dramatic.”
“She wasn’t.”
“No.”
She looked at me.
“Why did your father give her his pendant?”
I turned it over.
Scratches.
A seam.
I had never noticed.
The back twisted.
Inside was a tiny cavity.
A rolled strip of film.
Marcus stepped closer.
“Microfilm.”
My father had hidden something inside.
We digitized it.
Images appeared.
Financial ledgers.
Bank transfers.
Names.
Police.
Politicians.
Mason businesses.
Then one line stood out.
ELLIOT MASON - MEDICAL AUTHORIZATION
Under it:
W. HAYES - NEUROLOGICAL PROTOCOL
My hands went cold.
The protocol began six months before the crash.
Six months before my injury.
They had been planning something.
Then another document appeared.
Insurance policy.
Beneficiary after my father’s death:
Me.
But if I became permanently incapacitated?
Control moved temporarily to Elliot.
My uncle had motive.
My father had discovered it.
The final microfilm image contained one handwritten note.
My father’s writing.
IF DOMINIC SURVIVES, CLAIRE KNOWS WHY.
Megan stopped breathing.
Her mother had known the truth about my father’s death.
And apparently had spent twenty years hiding it.
Then Marcus’s phone rang.
He answered.
His face changed.
“What?”
He looked at me.
“We found Dr. Hayes.”
“Where?”
“Dead.”
Megan went pale.
“How?”
Marcus hesitated.
May you like
“Car accident.”
Same road where my father died.
