Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN WHO CAME BACK FROM THE DEADVictor hadn't spoken Elena's name aloud in almost twelve years.
Now her face glowed on his phone.
Chloe stared at the photograph.
“Are you certain that's her?”
Victor enlarged the image.
The silver butterfly necklace.
The crescent-shaped scar beneath her left eyebrow.
The familiar dark eyes.
“I'm certain.”
Gabriel pulled the SUV into an underground parking garage.
“Boss, we need to establish whether that picture is genuine.”
Victor ignored him.
He dialed a number he hadn't called in twelve years.
It connected immediately.
A woman answered.
“Hello, Victor.”
Chloe watched the color drain from his face.
“Elena?”
“You shouldn't have gotten involved with the waitress.”
Victor gripped the phone.
“Where is Liam Bennett?”
“Safe for now.”
“What do you want?”
Elena laughed softly.
“The same thing I wanted twelve years ago. The truth about what happened at Mercy.”
Victor's jaw tightened.
“You know what happened.”
“No, Victor. You know what they told you.”
The call ended.
Chloe stepped closer.
“Please tell me what's happening.”
Victor lowered his phone.
“Twelve years ago, Mercy Hospital was operating a private medical research program. My family financed part of it.”
“What kind of research?”
“Experimental treatments. Some legitimate. Others never should have been approved.”
Chloe felt sick.
“My mother worked at Mercy.”
Victor looked up sharply.
“What was her name?”
“Rebecca Bennett.”
The parking garage suddenly felt impossibly quiet.
Gabriel stopped typing on his phone.
Victor stared at Chloe.
“Your mother was Rebecca Bennett?”
“Yes.”
“What did she do?”
“She was a registered nurse.”
Victor slowly sat down.
“Rebecca Bennett wasn't just a nurse.”
Chloe's heart pounded.
“What do you mean?”
“She was the woman who reported the illegal trials.”
Chloe remembered her mother's final weeks.
The strange phone calls.
The locked bedroom door.
The terrible car accident that had taken her life.
Victor's expression darkened.
“Rebecca disappeared the night Mercy burned down.”
Chloe shook her head.
“No. My mother died in a highway accident.”
Victor opened an old photograph on his phone.
It showed Elena standing beside a younger Rebecca Bennett.
Behind them was another familiar face.
Senator Richard Caldwell.
Victor pointed at the photograph.
“This was taken three days before the fire.”
Chloe leaned closer.
Then she noticed the fourth person standing in the background.
A young boy holding Rebecca's hand.
She recognized him immediately.
It was Liam.
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But according to the date stamped on the photograph, Liam should have been only seven.
And the boy in the picture looked at least fifteen.
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