Chapter 9 - THE MESSAGE THAT CAME FROM THE ENEMY
Bianca's message arrived on Ava's phone at 11:47 p.m.
I have proof Mom lied about Eleanor. Please don't tell Dad. I'm scared.
Ava stared at the screen.
Three hours earlier, Bianca had been demanding that Ava be arrested.
Now she was asking for help.
Niko stood beside the window of his study.
“What did she say?”
Ava showed him.
He read the message.
“Could be a trap.”
“I know.”
Another message arrived.
I found the insurance policy. Two million dollars. They got rich after your mom died.
A photograph appeared.
The document was real enough to contain a policy number, date, and beneficiary names.
Ava looked up.
“We need to get her out.”
Niko studied her.
“She publicly humiliated you.”
“That doesn't mean I want her hurt.”
He held her gaze for a long moment.
Then he reached for his phone.
“Dante, find Bianca Whitmore. Quietly.”
Fifteen minutes later, Bianca called from a gas station pay phone outside Manhattan.
Her voice shook.
“I didn't know, Ava.”
“Where are you?”
“I can't stay here.”
“Bianca, tell me where you are.”
“I thought Mom was just protecting our family. She said you were trying to steal everything.”
Ava swallowed.
“And you believed her.”
“Yes.”
Bianca began crying.
“I was horrible to you.”
“You were.”
The silence that followed was painful.
Then Bianca whispered, “I heard Mom tell Thomas that your mother shouldn't have survived.”
Ava gripped the phone.
“What else did she say?”
“She mentioned a private clinic. Something called Rosehaven.”
Niko immediately wrote down the name.
“Ask her where.”
Ava repeated the question.
Bianca hesitated.
“Mom said the original records were moved there. She said nobody would ever find them.”
A car engine sounded behind Bianca.
Her breathing changed.
“Someone's here.”
“Bianca?”
“I have to go.”
“Stay on the phone.”
Footsteps.
A car door opened.
Bianca whispered, “Ava, I'm sorry.”
Then the line went dead.
Ava stared at the silent phone.
Niko was already speaking to Dante.
“Send the nearest security team. Call local police. Find that pay phone.”
Ava followed him toward the door.
“I'm coming.”
He stopped.
“You don't have to.”
“Yes, I do.”
He searched her face.
Then nodded.
“Stay beside me.”
Forty minutes later, they found Bianca's abandoned car near the gas station.
Her purse lay on the driver's seat.
Her phone was smashed on the pavement.
But there was no sign of Bianca.
Dante discovered a scrap of paper wedged beneath the windshield wiper.
It contained an address in upstate New York.
And three handwritten words.
SHE IS ALIVE.
Ava stared at the note.
“Who?”
Niko slowly turned toward her.
“The only person this entire story has been built around.”
May you like
Ava's breath caught.
“My mother?”
