Chapter 6 - THE WOMAN I HAD MOURNED TWICE
Anna was alive.
The sentence should have brought relief.
Instead, it brought rage first.
Then relief.
Then rage again.
“She let Lily believe she was d/e/@/d?”
Clara’s expression tightened.
“She believed it was the only way to protect her.”
“That family excuse is becoming very popular.”
Lucia looked offended.
I didn’t care.
Lily stood across the room.
She had heard everything.
Her face was unreadable.
“Mom is alive?”
Clara nodded slowly.
“Yes.”
Lily did not cry.
That frightened me.
“Where?”
“I don’t know exactly.”
“You said she’s alive.”
“She was eight months ago.”
“Where?”
“Washington State.”
Lily turned to me.
“We’re going.”
Not a question.
“Yes.”
Lucia stepped forward.
“Dominic, Helix is collapsing, but not every person involved has been identified.”
“Then they can follow me.”
“Why would you want that?”
“So they stop following my daughter.”
Lily looked up at me.
I realized what I had said.
My daughter.
Out loud.
No hesitation.
Her expression changed.
Just slightly.
But she moved closer.
We left Chicago the next morning.
Not secretly.
That surprised everyone.
I boarded a commercial flight under my own name with Lily beside me.
Marco hated it.
“That’s tactical nonsense.”
“It’s visible.”
“Exactly.”
“If anyone tries something in an airport full of cameras, they expose themselves.”
Lily whispered, “He has a point.”
Marco looked betrayed.
“You’ve known him two days.”
“He buys better snacks.”
We landed in Seattle under gray skies.
The train ticket led us to a small town near the Cascades.
No address.
Only one clue written on the back:
THE PLACE WHERE THE WATER NEVER FREEZES.
Marco searched maps.
Lily stared out the car window.
Then she suddenly pointed.
“That.”
A roadside sign.
Silverwater Springs.
An isolated hot spring resort thirty miles east.
We arrived before sunset.
Cabins surrounded a steaming blue lake.
Snow covered the ground, but mist rose from the water.
The place where the water never freezes.
My heart pounded harder with every step.
Cabin 17.
A woman was stacking firewood outside.
Dark hair streaked with gray.
Heavy sweater.
Boots.
She turned.
The wood fell from her arms.
Nobody moved.
“Dominic.”
Her voice.
Older.
But hers.
Lily stood beside me.
Anna saw her.
Everything else disappeared from her face.
“Lily.”
Lily did not move.
Anna took one step.
Lily stepped backward.
That hurt Anna visibly.
Good.
Some pain was earned.
“You’re alive,” Lily said.
Anna nodded.
“You’re alive.”
“Yes.”
“You let me think you were d/e/@/d.”
Anna began crying.
“Yes.”
Lily’s face twisted.
Then eleven years of fear, hunger, loneliness, bruises, responsibility, and grief exploded.
“You left me!”
“I know.”
“You left me with them!”
“I didn’t know Daniel would become your placement.”
“You said I was safe!”
“I thought you were.”
“You were wrong!”
Anna collapsed to her knees in the snow.
“I know.”
Lily’s fists clenched.
I almost stepped forward.
Then stopped.
This belonged to them.
Anna whispered:
“I chose wrong.”
Lily’s tears fell.
“I needed you.”
“I know.”
“I had Eli!”
“I know.”
“I was scared all the time!”
Anna covered her mouth.
“I know.”
Lily screamed:
“Stop saying you know!”
Silence echoed across the lake.
Anna lowered her hands.
“You’re right.”
Lily shook with sobs.
“You don’t know.”
“No.”
Anna looked at her.
“I don’t.”
That answer changed something.
Lily stared at her mother.
Anna continued.
“I thought disappearing would keep you safe. I convinced myself that being alive somewhere else was better than being near you and putting you at risk.”
She swallowed.
“But I was wrong.”
Lily listened.
“I should have trusted you more. I should have trusted Dominic.”
My chest tightened.
Anna looked at me.
“I should have come home.”
Home.
The word nearly destroyed me.
Lily wiped her face.
“Why didn’t you?”
Anna looked toward the lake.
“Because Helix had one person inside Dominic’s organization.”
Marco stiffened.
“What?”
Anna nodded.
“They knew where he ate. Where he slept. Who guarded him.”
I felt the old instincts return.
“Who?”
“I never learned the name.”
Marco looked furious.
“All these years?”
“They stopped communicating after my crash.”
I looked at Marco.
He already understood.
Someone close.
Someone who had been with me years.
Anna approached Lily again.
This time, she stopped several feet away.
“I don’t expect you to forgive me.”
Lily stared at her.
“Good.”
Anna nodded.
“That’s fair.”
Lily began crying again.
Then ran forward.
Anna caught her.
They fell into the snow together.
Neither spoke.
Neither needed to.
I turned away.
Marco pretended to inspect a tree.
I let them have the moment.
That night we sat around a stone fireplace.
Anna met Eli through a video call.
When Clara held him toward the camera, Anna cried so hard she couldn’t speak.
Adrian appeared too.
“You look terrible,” Anna told him.
He laughed.
“You look d/e/@/d.”
“Technically useful.”
Lily laughed for nearly a minute.
The sound filled the cabin.
For the first time since she entered my restaurant, she sounded like an eleven-year-old child.
Not a protector.
Not a witness.
Not someone forced to be brave.
Just a child.
I wanted to preserve that sound forever.
After Lily fell asleep, Anna and I sat outside.
Steam rose from the lake.
“You hate me,” she said.
“No.”
“That’s worse.”
“Yes.”
She almost smiled.
“I wanted to tell you.”
“When?”
“Every day.”
“You had eleven years.”
“I know.”
“Don’t use Lily’s least favorite sentence.”
Anna smiled.
Then grew serious.
“I was afraid of what your world would do to her.”
“And your solution placed her directly inside someone else’s.”
“I know.”
I looked at her.
“You trusted the wrong system.”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t trust me.”
“No.”
That hurt.
She saw it.
“I didn’t trust the man you were twelve years ago.”
Fair.
I had been crueler then.
Harder.
More interested in being feared than understood.
“What about now?”
Anna looked through the window at Lily asleep on the couch.
“Now?”
“Yes.”
She smiled softly.
“Now she sleeps when you’re in the room.”
I looked at Lily.
Anna continued.
“She didn’t do that with anyone after I disappeared.”
I swallowed.
“I don’t know how to be a father.”
“Neither did you know how to run a restaurant.”
“That was easier.”
“Probably.”
We sat in silence.
Then Anna reached into her coat.
“One more thing.”
“Please tell me nobody else is secretly alive.”
She laughed.
“No.”
“Good.”
She handed me a small notebook.
“What is this?”
“The person inside your organization kept notes.”
My expression hardened.
“You found them?”
“I found one page.”
I opened the notebook.
Names.
Dates.
Locations.
Then one initial appeared repeatedly.
M.
Marco.
My heart stopped.
Anna saw my expression.
“That’s why I never came back.”
I closed the notebook.
“No.”
“Dominic—”
“No.”
Marco had been beside me seventeen years.
Protected me.
Protected Lily.
Protected Eli.
“He could have k/i/lled me a thousand times.”
“Maybe that wasn’t his assignment.”
I stared at the cabin door.
Marco was inside.
With my daughter.
I stood instantly.
Anna caught my sleeve.
“Dominic.”
I moved toward the door.
Inside, Marco stood beside the fireplace.
Lily slept ten feet away.
He saw the notebook in my hand.
And immediately knew.
His face changed.
Not guilt.
Sadness.
“That’s not what you think.”
I lowered my voice.
“Explain.”
Marco looked at Lily.
Then at me.
“My last name isn’t Moretti.”
“I know.”
“It used to be.”
Silence.
“What?”
He whispered:
“Matteo Moretti was not your father’s only secret.”
My stomach dropped.
Marco continued.
“He had two sons.”
I stared at him.
Adrian.
And—
“No.”
May you like
Marco nodded.
“I’m the other one.”
