Z

Evelyn Vane had spent twenty years hiding from her own brother.

That was the simple version.

Nothing else about her story was simple.

We stayed inside the clinic while she explained.

Eleanor and Evelyn had been identical twins.

Their older brother Elias was brilliant.

Obsessive.

A neurologist before thirty.

By forty, he had stopped believing ethics were anything more than obstacles created by frightened people.

My mother left him.

Evelyn tried.

Elias made sure she couldn't.

“He believed family belonged together,” Evelyn said.

I laughed bitterly.

“He would have loved the Morettis.”

Antonio didn't object.

Evelyn explained that Elias had become involved with people who financed organized crime because criminal organizations supplied something universities couldn't.

Untraceable subjects.

People no one asked questions about.

Addicts.

Debtors.

Prisoners.

Runaways.

Nicholas’s face became dangerous.

“He experimented on people?”

“Yes.”

“With my father's knowledge?”

Antonio answered.

“No.”

Evelyn looked at him.

“Not at first.”

Antonio's jaw tightened.

“Don't.”

“You want truth now, Antonio.”

She looked at Nicholas.

“Your grandfather knew.”

Nicholas closed his eyes.

Another Moretti sin.

Evelyn continued.

“When Antonio discovered it, he tried to shut Elias out.”

“And Victor?” I asked.

“He protected him.”

Of course.

Victor protected useful monsters.

“Why?”

“Because Elias could make people forget details.”

“That isn't possible.”

“Not erase,” Evelyn said. “Blur. Confuse. Make memories unreliable enough that witnesses doubted themselves.”

Nicholas touched the side of his head unconsciously.

His missing hours at fourteen.

His missing memories after the warehouse.

“My mother?” I asked.

“Eleanor discovered what Elias was doing. She copied records. She and Thomas planned to expose everything.”

“Then Antonio ordered Dad stopped.”

Evelyn looked at him.

Antonio looked at the floor.

“Yes.”

“And Mom?”

“She survived longer.”

“Until cancer?”

Evelyn shook her head.

“She had cancer.”

I blinked.

“So that part was true.”

“Yes.”

“Then what did Elias do?”

“He found her during treatment.”

My skin prickled.

“When?”

“Three weeks before she died.”

“She was already sick.”

“Very.”

“Why kill her?”

“He didn't want to kill her.”

That somehow sounded worse.

“He wanted to know where she hid the research files.”

“The files?”

“Evidence.”

“Did she tell him?”

“No.”

“What did he do?”

Evelyn looked at me.

“He increased her morphine.”

The room went silent.

My mother had died in hospice.

I remembered the nurse telling me she went peacefully.

I remembered holding her hand.

Elias had made sure she never woke again.

I sat down.

Nicholas crouched beside me.

This time, I grabbed his hand before he offered it.

“Where is Elias?” Nicholas asked.

Evelyn looked at him.

“Alive.”

Everyone froze.

“His death certificate?”

“Fake.”

I laughed through tears.

“Of course.”

Nicholas almost smiled grimly.

“Our families have a problem with death certificates.”

Evelyn walked toward the wall of photographs.

“Elias staged his death when Victor was arrested.”

“Why?”

“Because Victor was his protection.”

“And now?”

“He wants control.”

“Of what?”

Evelyn looked at us.

“The Moretti empire isn't the empire.”

Antonio understood.

His face changed.

“No.”

“What?” Nicholas asked.

Antonio looked at his son.

“For decades, my family was part of a larger network.”

“Criminal?”

“Financial.”

Samuel said, “The criminal side moved money. The network bought access.”

Politicians.

Judges.

Companies.

Police.

Hospitals.

Research programs.

The Moretti name had been visible.

The people above them were not.

“Elias works for them?” I asked.

Evelyn nodded.

“He became more valuable than Victor.”

Nicholas looked around.

“The warehouse attack.”

“Yes.”

“Victor thought he arranged it.”

“He arranged one explosion.”

Nicholas’s eyes narrowed.

“Someone changed the explosives.”

“Elias.”

“He wanted me dead?”

“At first.”

“Why?”

“Because you were trying to make the Moretti companies legitimate.”

Nicholas laughed coldly.

“So crime wasn't the threat. Legitimacy was.”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Clean companies become harder to use.”

There it was.

Nicholas had unknowingly threatened a financial network bigger than his family.

“And me?” I asked.

Evelyn looked at me.

“Your mother hid evidence in something you inherited.”

“The music box?”

“No.”

“My father's drive?”

“No.”

“What then?”

She looked at my wedding ring.

I stared at my hand.

“No.”

Nicholas looked too.

“This was yours,” I said to him.

“Yes.”

“Your grandmother’s?”

“My mother's.”

Isabella had given it to Nicholas before he proposed.

Evelyn shook her head.

“Before Isabella, it belonged to Eleanor.”

My heart stopped.

Antonio whispered, “What?”

Evelyn nodded.

“Thomas gave it to her.”

I removed the ring.

Nicholas stared.

“I thought Mother inherited it from my grandmother.”

“So did she.”

Antonio looked stunned.

“How did Isabella get it?”

Evelyn shrugged.

“Eleanor gave it to me before she went into hospice. I sent it to Antonio.”

Antonio’s face changed.

“I never received it.”

“Then someone intercepted it.”

Nicholas took the ring.

He examined the diamond.

“What are we looking for?”

Evelyn smiled sadly.

“Break it.”

I stared.

“No.”

“Sofia.”

“It survived our entire marriage.”

“It wasn't meant to.”

Nicholas looked at me.

“Your choice.”

That mattered again.

I nodded.

“Do it.”

Samuel brought tools.

Nicholas carefully pried the setting apart.

Under the diamond was a tiny metal capsule.

Inside it?

A microfilm strip.

Old technology.

Nearly impossible to hack.

My mother had hidden evidence inside a ring that eventually became my wedding ring.

Nicholas laughed softly.

“What?”

He looked at me.

“I married you with evidence against my own family on your finger.”

“Romantic.”

“Very.”

Evelyn used an old scanner.

The microfilm contained names.

Accounts.

Dates.

Not just Moretti records.

Corporate executives.

Former federal officials.

Hospital directors.

Foundations.

One name appeared repeatedly.

HELIX FOUNDATION.

Samuel went pale.

“What?” Nicholas asked.

“Helix still exists.”

“Doing what?”

“Medical research.”

I stared at the screen.

“They're still operating.”

Evelyn nodded.

“And Elias runs it.”

Then a red light began flashing above the hallway.

Nicholas turned.

“What is that?”

Evelyn’s face changed.

“Security breach.”

Samuel pulled his gun.

Antonio moved toward the window.

Outside, black SUVs entered the clinic grounds.

One.

Two.

Five.

Nicholas grabbed my hand.

“How many exits?”

“Three.”

“Which one isn't obvious?”

“Basement tunnel.”

Of course there was a tunnel.

We moved.

Gunshots broke the lobby windows before we reached the stairwell.

Nicholas pulled me down behind a concrete wall.

Evelyn led.

Samuel and Antonio covered the rear.

The basement tunnel smelled like dust and bleach.

Halfway through, an explosion shook the ceiling.

I stumbled.

Nicholas caught me.

“Keep moving.”

We reached an underground garage.

One vehicle waited.

Evelyn opened the driver's door.

Then froze.

On the windshield was a white envelope.

My name.

Again.

Nicholas stopped me before I touched it.

He opened it himself.

Inside was one photograph.

Me.

Nicholas.

Our new house.

Taken through the bedroom window.

My stomach dropped.

On the back were six words.

THE NEXT CHILD WILL BELONG TO US.

Nicholas went completely still.

I stared at the message.

“The next child?”

Evelyn looked at me.

Then at Nicholas.

Her expression changed.

“What?”

She asked me a strange question.

“When was your last period?”

The world narrowed.

Nicholas looked at me.

I did the math.

Once.

Twice.

Then my hand moved automatically to my stomach.

“No.”

Nicholas stopped breathing.

I looked at him.

“I’m late.”