Chapter 2 - The Woman Who Saved a Monster
My mother had been dead for six years, but suddenly the most feared man in New York was asking questions about her.
I stared at the photograph.
"Where did you get this?"
Marcus Reed remained standing beside the counter.
"Mr. Vale kept it."
"Why?"
"Because he never forgot the woman in that picture."
I looked down again.
My mother appeared young, perhaps twenty-five.
She wore a pale yellow dress and held the little boy's hand.
I recognized her smile.
The same smile she'd worn in every photograph from my childhood.
But I had never seen Dominic Vale before.
"My mother was a nurse," I said slowly.
Marcus nodded.
"She worked at a private medical facility outside Philadelphia."
My chest tightened.
Mom had mentioned working there before I was born.
She'd never explained why she left.
"What happened to Dominic?"
Marcus glanced toward Frank.
"Mr. Vale would prefer to explain that himself."
I shook my head.
"I'm not going anywhere with you."
Marcus surprised me by nodding.
"Then he can come here."
I blinked.
"What?"
"You're free to refuse."
For the first time, I realized he wasn't threatening me.
He was waiting for an answer.
"Tell him he can talk to me tomorrow," I said. "Here. During daylight."
Marcus studied me for a moment.
Then he nodded.
"Understood."
He turned toward the door.
But before leaving, he stopped.
"Miss Carter?"
"Yes?"
"Mr. Vale hasn't allowed anyone to touch his face in nearly thirty years."
I looked at him.
"Why?"
Marcus hesitated.
"Because the last person who touched him gently was your mother."
Then he walked into the rain.
That night, I barely slept.
I searched through the cardboard boxes containing Mom's belongings.
Old photographs.
Birthday cards.
Medical certificates.
Letters she'd never mailed.
At the bottom of a small jewelry box, I found a silver bracelet.
A tiny engraving read:
D.V. — Be Brave.
My hands trembled.
I remembered Mom wearing it when I was little.
Whenever I asked about it, she'd smile sadly.
"A gift from a boy who needed somebody to believe in him."
I had assumed she meant a patient.
Now I wasn't so sure.
Beneath the bracelet lay a folded hospital document.
The paper was yellow with age.
I opened it carefully.
PATIENT: DOMINIC VALE.
AGE: 7.
Under emergency contact, one name had been crossed out.
A second had been handwritten beneath it.
ELEANOR CARTER — LEGAL GUARDIAN.
I stared at the words.
My mother hadn't simply been Dominic Vale's nurse.
May you like
For a brief period, she'd been legally responsible for him.
And attached to the document was an emergency court order accusing Dominic's own father of trying to kill him.
