Chapter 4
I put Nora behind Mae with two guards.
Not because I wanted distance.
Because I needed my hands free.
Marcus noticed.
“So now what?”
I looked at him.
“You tell me what happened four years ago.”
He laughed.
“Nothing happened.”
“You told Mae I abandoned her.”
“Celeste did.”
Celeste turned.
“You coward.”
Good.
Let them split.
Marcus continued:
“She wanted Mae gone.”
“And you?”
“I wanted you focused.”
“On?”
“The organization.”
Of course.
Cruelty always came dressed as concern for my leadership.
Mae stared at him.
“You locked me in the old laundry room.”
Marcus’s face changed.
I looked at him.
“For how long?”
He shrugged.
“Couple hours.”
“Two days,” Mae whispered.
Celeste smiled cruelly.
“She had water.”
I turned.
She didn’t flinch.
“Pregnant.”
“She survived.”
There it was.
Their standard.
Alive meant acceptable.
Mae continued.
“They told me Nolan was engaged.”
I looked at Celeste.
“We weren’t.”
“No.”
Mae’s voice broke.
“They showed me the ring box.”
I looked down at the band in my palm.
The proposal ring.
Mine.
I had ordered it two days before Manhattan.
A private jeweler.
One custom engraving.
NOLAN + MAE.
I never saw the finished piece.
After the attack, Marcus told me the jeweler had failed to complete it.
I believed him.
“Where did you get it?”
Celeste touched her bare finger.
Marcus answered:
“I picked it up.”
“Why?”
He said nothing.
Celeste did.
“Because I deserved it more.”
Mae stared.
Celeste smiled.
“You left.”
Mae stepped forward.
“You forced me out.”
“You still left.”
Nora whispered behind her:
“Mommy didn’t eat on the bus.”
Celeste looked at the child.
“Stop talking.”
Nora recoiled.
I stepped between them.
“What bus?”
Mae closed her eyes.
“They gave me a ticket and five hundred dollars.”
“Where?”
“Ohio.”
“Why there?”
Marcus spoke.
“Far enough.”
I looked at him.
“You sent my pregnant girlfriend across the country with five hundred dollars.”
He shrugged.
“She was staff.”
I hit the table with my palm.
Every brass metronome jumped.
Marcus stopped smiling.
Mae whispered:
“There was one more thing.”
I looked at her.
“Before they sent me away, Marcus said the Manhattan attack had finally made you easier to manage.”
The room changed.
I turned toward him.
May you like
The attack that separated Mae from me had never been random.
Marcus knew exactly what it was for.
