Chapter 1 - THE WOMAN EVERYONE WALKED PAST
I should have kept walking.
That was the thought that came back to me for months afterward.
Not because helping her was a mistake.
Because that night, for the first time in two years, I had something to lose.
My name is Megan Carter.
I was thirty-four years old, a single mother, and two months behind on rent.
My daughter, Ava, was eight.
Our apartment had a cracked kitchen window, a refrigerator that hummed louder than it cooled, and a heating system that seemed personally offended by winter.
But it was ours.
I had promised Ava that we would stay.
So when my manager called me for the third time that evening, I was already running.
My shoes slapped against the wet pavement as I hurried through Boston's Back Bay.
My phone vibrated inside my coat.
FRANK SULLIVAN.
I ignored it.
It vibrated again.
I answered.
“Where are you?”
Frank didn't say hello.
“Three blocks away.”
“You were supposed to be here ten minutes ago.”
“I know.”
“Then explain why you're not.”
I glanced toward the restaurant's glowing sign.
“I stopped because someone needed help.”
A bitter laugh came through the phone.
“Of course you did.”
I stopped walking.
“What does that mean?”
“You know exactly what it means, Megan.”
The line went dead.
I stared at the screen.
Then I heard something.
A cough.
I turned.
An elderly woman was sitting beneath a bus shelter.
Alone.
Rainwater streamed from her silver hair.
Her mustard-colored sweater was completely soaked.
One hand clutched her ankle.
People passed around her.
A businessman stepped over a puddle beside her.
A young couple glanced at her and kept walking.
A taxi slowed, then continued.
I looked at my watch.
8:52.
Frank had given me ten minutes.
I could still make it.
I took three steps.
Then stopped.
I closed my eyes.
“Damn it.”
I turned around.
The woman looked up when I approached.
“Ma'am?”
Her eyes were a remarkable shade of amber.
“I slipped,” she whispered.
“I'm calling an ambulance.”
“No.”
The response came too quickly.
She grabbed my wrist.
“No hospital.”
I crouched beside her.
“You may have broken something.”
“I'll be fine.”
“You're shaking.”
“So are you.”
I almost laughed.
“I've got reasons.”
“So do I.”
Then she tried to stand.
Her face went white.
I caught her before she fell.
“Okay,” I said. “New plan. We're getting you somewhere warm.”
She stared at me.
“You have somewhere to be.”
It wasn't a question.
“Yes.”
“You should go.”
I looked at her soaked sweater.
Then at her ankle.
“No.”
She studied me strangely.
“You're going to regret that.”
“I already regret plenty of things. Helping you isn't going to make the list.”
I slipped her arm around my shoulders.
She was lighter than I expected.
“What's your name?”
“Eleanor.”
“I'm Megan.”
“I know.”
I stopped.
“What?”
She blinked.
For a second, something almost frightened crossed her face.
“Nothing.”
I didn't have time to question it.
I helped her into the lobby of a nearby hotel and asked the concierge to call medical assistance.
While we waited, I noticed the gold chain around her neck.
A small crest hung from it.
I'd seen that symbol before.
Not on jewelry.
On the private dining room at Harbor and Vine.
The room where Boston's wealthiest families held meetings behind closed doors.
I looked at Eleanor.
“Are you connected to that restaurant?”
She smiled faintly.
“More than you realize.”
My phone rang.
Frank.
This time I didn't answer.
A message appeared.
DON'T COME BACK. YOUR SHIFTS ARE OVER.
I stared at it.
My stomach dropped.
I had just lost my job.
Eleanor noticed.
“Bad news?”
I put the phone away.
“I'll figure it out.”
She reached into her purse.
I immediately shook my head.
“Please don't pay me.”
“I wasn't going to.”
She smiled.
“I was going to give you my card.”
She handed me a simple cream-colored card.
No title.
No phone number.
Just a name.
Eleanor Sullivan.
I stared at it.
Sullivan.
My stomach tightened.
“Frank Sullivan?”
“My son.”
I looked at her.
The manager who had just fired me.
The woman whose life I had stopped to save.
And somewhere across Boston, I suspected there was a man who was about to discover that his mother had disappeared into the rain.
May you like
I had no idea that man was already on his way.
And I had no idea that saving Eleanor would eventually save me, too.
