Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD
Eight years ago, Nathan Drake had buried his wife.
At least, that was what the entire city believed.
I stood beside the penthouse door, staring at him.
“You were married?”
Nathan nodded.
“Her name was Victoria.”
“What happened to her?”
“A car accident.”
“And now you're saying she's alive?”
“I'm saying someone is using her credentials.”
I crossed my arms.
“That doesn't explain why anyone would be looking at my mother's hospital records.”
Nathan called his head of security.
“Marcus, get upstairs. Now.”
Five minutes later, a tall man with a shaved head entered the penthouse.
He carried a tablet.
“Boss, we traced the access.”
“Who?”
Marcus glanced at me.
Nathan noticed.
“Say it.”
“The request came from an account registered to Victoria Drake. The authentication passed through a terminal at St. Augustine Medical Center.”
My knees weakened.
“That was my mother's hospital.”
Marcus looked surprised.
“You knew?”
“My mother died there.”
Nathan turned toward me.
“Bella, did your mother ever mention Victoria Drake?”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“Did she know anyone connected to my companies?”
“My mother cleaned offices. That's all.”
Marcus opened another file.
“Actually, sir, there's something else.”
A photograph appeared.
It showed my mother standing beside a younger Nathan Drake.
They were outside a brick building near the Chicago River.
I stared at the screen.
My mother looked almost fifteen years younger.
Nathan looked stunned.
“When was this taken?” he demanded.
“September 2013.”
Nathan rubbed his forehead.
“I don't remember meeting her.”
I pointed toward the photograph.
“Then why is she standing beside you?”
Marcus enlarged the image.
Behind them was a black sedan.
A woman sat in the back seat.
Her face was partly hidden.
But Nathan recognized her immediately.
“Victoria.”
My stomach tightened.
“Your wife knew my mother?”
Nathan didn't answer.
He was staring at something else.
A small envelope in my mother's hand.
Printed across the front were three words.
Drake Family Trust.
Marcus checked his tablet again.
“Boss, I found an old transfer associated with that envelope.”
“How much?”
Marcus hesitated.
“Forty-nine thousand, two hundred dollars.”
I felt the room tilt.
The exact amount of my mother's hospital debt.
Nathan looked at me.
May you like
And for the first time, the most feared mafia boss in Chicago looked genuinely frightened.
“Bella,” he whispered, “I don't think your mother came into my life by accident.”
