Chapter 2 - THE NAME HER MOTHER NEVER USED
The first lie Lily's mother had told wasn't about where she lived.
It was about her name.
At 5:12 P.M., Marco returned from checking the road.
“No sign of a vehicle following her.”
Adrian nodded.
“And the school?”
“Lily attends Briar Glen Elementary in White Plains.”
Lily looked up from the grilled cheese Teresa had made.
Adrian frowned.
“That is forty minutes from here.”
Marco nodded.
“The mother is registered as Anna Hart.”
Adrian glanced at Lily.
“That's your last name?”
She nodded.
“Lily Hart.”
Marco continued.
“Anna Hart rents a townhouse on Maple Terrace. No criminal history. No obvious connection to us.”
“Employment?”
“Freelance bookkeeper.”
Adrian's eyes narrowed.
“Bookkeeper.”
Something about that felt deliberate.
He looked again at Matteo's photograph.
His brother had been meticulous with money.
Too meticulous.
Matteo had once found a six-hundred-dollar discrepancy in a ten-million-dollar freight ledger because the decimal alignment annoyed him.
“Send someone to the townhouse.”
Marco nodded.
“I already did.”
That should have reassured Adrian.
It didn't.
The note remained inside his jacket.
DO NOT LET MARCO TAKE LILY OUTSIDE THE HOUSE.
Adrian asked, “Who did you send?”
“Cruz and Bennett.”
“Recall them.”
Marco frowned.
“Why?”
“I'll handle it differently.”
A pause.
Then Marco nodded.
“Fine.”
Adrian noticed the pause.
He had never noticed pauses before.
That bothered him.
Lily finished half her sandwich.
“Mr. DeLuca?”
“Yes?”
“Is Uncle Matt dead?”
The kitchen went silent.
Teresa froze near the stove.
Adrian stared at the child.
“What did you call him?”
“Uncle Matt.”
His pulse changed.
“You know the man in the photograph?”
Lily looked confused.
“Of course.”
“You've met him?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Lots of times.”
Adrian pulled out the photograph.
“This man?”
She nodded.
“Uncle Matt.”
Adrian sat down slowly.
“Where does he live?”
“Mommy said I'm not supposed to say.”
“Lily.”
Her little shoulders stiffened.
He immediately softened his voice.
“I'm not angry.”
She studied him.
Then whispered, “Mommy said if something happened, I could tell you after you showed me something.”
“What?”
“The bird.”
Adrian went still.
His father had given Matteo and Adrian identical medallions when they were boys.
Black enamel birds.
Adrian still wore his beneath his shirt.
He reached inside his collar and pulled the chain free.
Lily's eyes widened.
“That.”
She climbed from the chair.
Then opened her backpack.
From the side pocket, she removed another medallion.
The matching blackbird.
Matteo's.
Adrian took it with shaking fingers.
There was no question.
He had watched his brother wear it from age fourteen until the night before the warehouse fire.
“Where did you get this?”
“Uncle Matt gave it to Mommy.”
“When?”
Lily thought.
“Before Christmas.”
Adrian couldn't breathe properly.
Matteo had been alive ten months ago.
Then Lily said:
“He told Mommy if the bad men came again, she had to take me to Vermont.”
“Vermont?”
She nodded.
“There's a blue house near a lake.”
Marco stepped closer.
Adrian immediately looked at him.
Marco stopped.
“What?”
Adrian's voice was calm.
“Give us a minute.”
Marco's expression changed.
Barely.
Then he left.
Teresa waited until the door closed.
“I don't like that.”
“Neither do I.”
Adrian crouched beside Lily.
“Sweetheart, I need your mother's real name.”
Lily looked worried.
“She said Anna.”
“She told you something else, didn't she?”
Slowly, Lily nodded.
“When she cries, Uncle Matt calls her Sofia.”
Adrian's world shifted.
Sofia Bell.
He hadn't heard the name in six years.
Sofia had been Matteo's fiancée.
She had supposedly died in the same warehouse fire.
Adrian stood so quickly the chair hit the floor.
Teresa whispered, “Dear God.”
Two people Adrian had buried that night had apparently survived.
And six years later, they had a little girl hidden between them.
But when Adrian counted backward, another truth emerged.
Lily was six.
Matteo and Sofia had disappeared six years ago.
Which meant Sofia had already been pregnant when the warehouse burned.
May you like
And Adrian's family hadn't simply lost Matteo that night.
Someone had tried to erase an unborn child too.
