Chapter 13
Natalie was found two days later.
Not by force.
By the bracelets.
Mrs. Keller remembered something Natalie told Audrey during the secret visit.
“When the blue bracelets are together, Mommy knows it’s safe.”
Cassandro understood the message differently now.
It had not been meant for Audrey alone.
Natalie had arranged for Mrs. Keller to place both bracelets on the old chapel statue near Bellandi Creek if Cassandro learned the truth and the compromised captains were removed.
Cassandro did exactly that.
Then he waited.
Twenty hours later, one of his guards called from the chapel.
A woman had appeared at the tree line.
She refused to approach until Cassandro came alone.
He did.
Natalie looked older.
Thinner.
A pale scar ran along one side of her forehead.
But it was her.
Cassandro stopped several yards away.
Neither moved.
For three years, he had imagined this moment in a hundred impossible ways. Rage. Tears. Running toward her.
Instead he said:
“I believed you left.”
Natalie closed her eyes.
“I know.”
“I stopped searching.”
“I know.”
That answer hurt more than accusation.
Cassandro looked at the faded bracelet on her wrist.
“I’m sorry.”
Natalie’s eyes filled.
“For believing them?”
“For stopping.”
She looked away.
Then back.
“They made it convincing.”
“That doesn’t change it.”
“No.”
Silence.
Honest silence.
Finally Cassandro asked the question he had been carrying since the pool.
“Why didn’t you come to me two months ago?”
Natalie looked toward the chapel.
“Because Gideon was still at your table.”
“He isn’t now.”
“And Damian?”
“Finished.”
“Vivienne?”
Cassandro’s expression changed.
“She will be.”
Natalie nodded.
Then asked:
“Audrey?”
His throat tightened.
“She remembers you.”
Natalie started crying.
“Does she hate me?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
Cassandro almost smiled.
“She tried to drown herself getting back to the wall you showed her.”
Natalie’s face collapsed.
“What?”
He told her.
Not every detail.
Enough.
By the time he finished, Natalie was no longer crying from relief.
She was angry.
May you like
And Cassandro recognized that anger immediately.
It was the same anger Vivienne had spent three years calling instability.
