Chapter 7 - The Secret Beneath the Wedding RingBack at the safe house, Mallory sat beside Noah while Silas examined the recovered messages.
Jonah placed a glass of water on the table.
“What ledger?”
Mallory stared at her wedding ring.
“The night I disappeared, Adrian gave me something.”
Silas looked up.
“What?”
“A small silver key.”
“Why?”
“He said it belonged to you. He told me to keep it safe until he explained everything.”
Silas frowned.
“I never gave Adrian a key.”
Mallory removed her wedding ring.
The inside was scratched and worn.
“I hid it here.”
Silas examined the ring.
There was a tiny seam beneath the band.
Jonah brought a jeweler's tool.
A few seconds later, a narrow compartment opened.
Inside was a miniature key.
Silas stared at it.
“Where does it go?”
Mallory shook her head.
“I don't know.”
Jonah took photographs and began tracing the markings.
Within an hour, he discovered something unusual.
The key belonged to a private storage vault at an old bank in Chicago.
The vault had been registered under Mallory's maiden name.
Silas looked at her.
“You've been carrying this for three years?”
She nodded.
“I thought it was something Adrian wanted me to protect. When I realized he had lied about your death, I tried to tell Walter.”
“What happened?”
“He locked me in a room for two days. Then he told me that if I ever mentioned the key again, Noah would disappear.”
Silas looked away.
He needed to leave before his anger overwhelmed him.
Mallory reached for his hand.
“Please don't shut me out.”
He turned back.
“I'm not shutting you out.”
“You keep looking at me as if you're afraid I'll disappear.”
Silas was silent.
Then he admitted the truth.
“Because I am.”
Mallory's eyes filled.
He sat beside her.
“I spent three years looking for you. I imagined every possible ending. I imagined finding you alive, finding you injured, finding you somewhere you couldn't speak.”
He swallowed.
“But I never imagined that I'd find you and discover how much you had suffered while I was searching.”
Mallory touched his cheek.
“You didn't abandon me.”
“I should have protected you.”
“You loved me. You couldn't have known.”
For the first time, Silas allowed himself to lean against her.
She kissed his forehead.
Then Jonah returned.
“I found the bank.”
Silas straightened.
“What's inside?”
“According to the registration, the vault contains original financial records belonging to the Black Circle.”
“Enough to destroy them?”
Jonah nodded.
“Enough to expose their entire network.”
Silas looked at Mallory.
“Then that's what we're doing.”
But Jonah wasn't finished.
“There's one more thing. The vault was accessed yesterday.”
“By whom?”
Jonah turned the tablet around.
A photograph showed a woman entering the bank.
She wore a dark coat and sunglasses.
Mallory stared at the screen.
Her lips parted.
“That's impossible.”
Silas looked at her.
“Who is she?”
Mallory whispered:
“My mother.”
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Her mother had supposedly died when Mallory was seventeen.
And now she was alive.
