Chapter 2
Marcus went completely still.
“What did you say?”
Nora’s hands shook around the silver tray.
“She never left,” she whispered again.
I stared at her.
Three months earlier, Victoria Mercer had supposedly died from complications after a private surgery in Switzerland.
There had been a closed casket.
A black funeral.
A speech from Marcus about losing his mother.
I had stood beside him, five months pregnant, while he cried into my hand.
Now Nora was telling us his mother was alive.
Marcus stood slowly.
“That is not possible.”
Nora looked at the crimson dress.
“Then how is that here?”
The question sat between us.
Heavy.
Ugly.
Alive.
Marcus turned toward me.
“Elena, I need you to sit.”
“No.”
My voice cracked.
“I have been sitting, resting, obeying, drinking her tea, taking those vitamins because everyone said pregnancy made me fragile.”
Nora set down the tray.
“Mrs. Mercer told me the vitamins came from Dr. Vale.”
Marcus frowned.
“Dr. Vale is dead.”
Nora shook her head.
“His clinic is closed. That is not the same.”
My knees nearly failed.
Dr. Adrian Vale had been Victoria’s private physician.
He had signed her death papers.
He had also prescribed my prenatal vitamins.
The same vitamins that made my hands shake.
The same pills that made shadows move at night.
The same pills Marcus kept saying were “probably just hormones.”
Marcus saw my face.
Guilt hit his.
“Elena.”
“You didn’t believe me.”
“I thought you were scared.”
“I was.”
Nora stepped closer.
“There is a locked room beneath the east wing.”
Marcus turned sharply.
“What room?”
“Your mother’s room.”
The hallway lights flickered.
Somewhere above us, a floorboard creaked.
I looked toward the ceiling.
May you like
And from the dark balcony overlooking the dining room, a woman’s voice whispered my name.
“Elena.”
