Chapter 12 - THE WOMAN WHO NEVER DIED
Aurora stopped breathing.
Richard Whitlock had just claimed her mother was alive.
Before Victor could react, federal agents moved into position.
A flash of brilliant light erupted near the warehouse entrance.
Officers shouted commands.
The armed guards dropped their weapons.
Dante rushed forward and pulled Lily behind a concrete barrier.
Within moments, investigators had secured Victor and several accomplices.
Richard was taken into custody and given emergency medical treatment.
But Aurora barely noticed.
Her attention remained fixed on a steel door at the rear of the warehouse.
The scream had come from behind it.
“Aurora, stay back,” Dante warned.
Investigators checked the room before allowing anyone near it.
Then the door opened.
A woman stood inside.
She wore a faded blue sweater.
Her hair had turned almost completely gray.
Her face was thinner than Aurora remembered.
But her eyes...
Aurora knew those eyes.
“Mom?”
The woman covered her mouth.
“Aurora?”
The world seemed to stop.
Aurora ran forward.
Elena Reyes opened her arms.
They collided in a trembling embrace.
Aurora sobbed against her mother's shoulder.
For seventeen years, she had believed Elena was dead.
For seventeen years, birthdays had come and gone without her.
Now her mother was holding her again.
“I tried to come back,” Elena whispered.
“I tried so many times.”
Aurora pulled away just enough to look at her.
“Where were you?”
Elena began crying.
“Victor kept me hidden. He told me he'd kill you if I escaped.”
Dante approached quietly.
“Mrs. Reyes, how did Victor convince everyone you died?”
Elena looked at him.
Then at Aurora.
“Richard arranged the false identification after the crash.”
She swallowed.
“But there's something worse.”
Aurora gripped her mother's hands.
“What?”
Elena's voice broke.
“Victor wasn't the person who ordered the accident.”
Dante frowned.
“Then who was?”
May you like
Elena looked toward the ambulance carrying Richard Whitlock.
“The person who ordered it was Braden's mother.”
