Chapter 9
The bracelet chip contained one final hidden file.
Encrypted badly.
Natalie expected me to find it, not a technician.
The password was Audrey’s birthday.
Inside was an address.
No message.
Just an address and one line:
If I disappear twice, look where water never freezes.
I knew the place.
A greenhouse property my mother loved.
Heated year-round.
North of the city.
Abandoned by Moretti after her death.
Nobody used it.
Exactly why Natalie might.
We drove there before dawn.
No convoy.
Four men.
Mrs. Keller stayed with Audrey.
I entered first.
The greenhouse smelled like wet soil and cedar.
Plants had overgrown half the interior.
Someone had been living there.
Recent.
Blanket.
Canned food.
Books.
A small child’s sweater.
Audrey’s old size.
My throat tightened.
Then I heard movement.
I turned.
A woman stood behind the glass partition holding a kitchen knife.
Thin.
Hair shorter.
Face older.
Natalie.
For three years I imagined our reunion.
Anger.
Questions.
Maybe hatred.
None survived the moment.
I said her name.
She flinched.
That hurt more than anything.
“Natalie.”
Her grip tightened.
“Who came with you?”
“My men.”
“Which men?”
Not romantic.
Not emotional.
Security first.
Of course.
“Only mine.”
She laughed once.
“You still say that.”
I understood.
Mine had once included Damian.
Matteo.
People who betrayed both of us.
I raised my empty hands.
“Then tell me who you trust.”
She stared.
After a long silence:
“Keller.”
Good.
I called Mrs. Keller.
Put her on speaker.
Natalie heard Audrey in the background.
Everything in her face collapsed.
“My baby?”
Audrey shouted through the phone:
“Mommy?”
Natalie dropped the knife.
Not dramatically.
May you like
It just slipped.
And for the first time in three years, I saw my wife stop surviving long enough to cry.
