Chapter 3
Rose Bennett was not just a waitress.
She had grown up at St. Catherine’s too.
Not with me.
Twenty years later.
Martha had fed her as well.
That explained the loyalty in her voice.
“I work events because the pay is good,” Rose said. “But I still volunteer there.”
Serena looked furious.
“You never disclosed that.”
Rose stared back.
“You never asked.”
Good answer.
Yesterday, Rose arrived at St. Catherine’s during the evacuation.
Two buses.
Twenty-three children.
She counted because the younger ones were frightened.
Eli was missing.
She told Serena.
Serena claimed he had been sent ahead in a private car.
“What car?”
Rose shook her head.
“I never saw one.”
Martha added:
“Neither did I.”
I looked at Serena.
“Who drove Eli?”
Her eyes hardened.
“He was with staff.”
“Name.”
Silence.
“Serena.”
“Gideon.”
There.
Gideon Vale.
Her uncle.
Sixty-two.
Former head of the Vale branch.
The man who introduced Serena to me three years earlier.
A polished man who always spoke about charity as though generosity were a business model.
“Where is he?”
“At Hawthorne.”
Convenient.
I pulled out my phone.
Serena stood.
“Gabriel, don’t.”
I looked at her.
She stopped.
“Don’t what?”
Her lips parted.
“Go there angry.”
Interesting.
Not do not go.
Do not go angry.
Meaning there was something at Hawthorne she already expected me to hate.
I called Rafe.
“Cars.”
Martha started rising.
I touched her shoulder.
“You stay.”
“No.”
Her voice was quiet.
“I lost one boy yesterday.”
“You did not lose him.”
“I should have followed.”
“You are seventy-five.”
“And?”
I almost smiled despite everything.
Same Martha.
Fine.
She came.
Rose too.
Serena tried to join us.
I looked at her.
“No.”
Her face changed.
“You can’t leave me here like—”
“This gala is yours.”
I glanced around the ballroom.
“You explain to every donor why the home they were feeding tonight had no children inside it.”
That hurt.
Good.
Then I leaned closer.
“And when I return, you explain why your uncle took one nine-year-old separately.”
She whispered:
“You’re making this look worse than it is.”
I looked at the brass key in my palm.
“No.”
May you like
My voice stayed measured.
“Someone did that before I arrived.”
