Chapter 4 - THE SEVERED BEADS
The waitress stared at the broken rosary on the floor, her face draining of all color. She scooped the boy up into her arms, ignoring her spilled purse, and backed toward the door.
“Wait!” Adrian said, stepping forward. “Please. We’re not here to hurt you. That rosary—it belonged to my sister.”
The woman froze, her hand on the brass door handle. She looked at Adrian, really looked at him, and her shoulders slumped in a strange mixture of defeat and relief.
“You’re Adrian,” she whispered.
“Yes,” he said, his voice cracking. “Where is Elena? Is this… is this her son?”
The woman looked down at the little boy, who was happily chewing his bagel, completely oblivious to the tension in the room.
“My name is Sarah,” the woman said. “I was Elena’s roommate in Maine. We worked at a diner together. And yes, this is Tommy. He’s your nephew.”
Tears spilled over Adrian’s lashes. He took a hesitant step toward the boy, but Sarah held up a hand.
“Don’t,” she said sharply. “If you’re here, it means she knows where we are. It means the deal is broken.”
“What deal?” Julia asked, stepping gently to Adrian's side to anchor him. “Who knows?”
“Eleanor,” Sarah said, spitting the name out like poison.
We followed Sarah to a small, cramped apartment a few blocks away. The furniture was thrifted, and the heater rattled loudly, but the walls were covered in bright, messy finger paintings. Tommy immediately ran to a corner to play with a pile of wooden blocks.
Sarah locked the deadbolt and turned to us.
“Elena didn’t run away from home because she was pregnant,” Sarah said, pacing the small living room. “She ran away because she found out who the father was.”
I felt a cold dread pool in my stomach. “She was dating a mechanic from the marina,” I said, remembering Eleanor’s excuse.
“There was no mechanic,” Sarah said bitterly. She went to a small tin box on the kitchen counter and pulled out a faded Polaroid photograph. She handed it to Adrian.
I looked over his shoulder. The picture showed a young Elena, heavily pregnant, standing next to an older man with gray hair. He was leaning on a cane.
“Uncle Leo,” Adrian breathed out, sickened.
“No,” Sarah corrected. “Not your uncle. That man is your mother’s business partner, Richard Vance. The man who runs the DeLuca trust.”
Adrian stared at her, the betrayal compounding so fast he could barely stand it. “Richard? He’s been a family friend for twenty years. He’s married. He has grandchildren.”
“And he assaulted your nineteen-year-old sister,” Sarah said, her voice shaking with rage. “When Elena told your mother she was pregnant, Eleanor didn’t care about Elena. She cared about the trust. Richard controlled the company’s voting shares. A scandal would have ruined Eleanor’s power.”
I felt physically ill. Eleanor hadn’t just kicked her daughter out to hide a pregnancy; she had sacrificed her daughter to protect her wealth.
“So Eleanor sent her away,” Julia said, piecing the horror together. “And she made up the story about Uncle Leo to cover her tracks at the pawn shop.”
“Eleanor tracked her to Maine three years ago,” Sarah said, looking at Tommy playing with his blocks. “Elena knew she couldn’t run forever. So she made a deal with your mother.”
Sarah walked over to the closet and pulled out a beautiful, expensive child’s winter coat. It was cashmere, completely out of place in this apartment.
“Eleanor agreed to pay for Tommy’s silence and safety,” Sarah explained, clutching the coat. “But only if Elena disappeared completely. If Elena ever contacted Tommy, or tried to claim him, Eleanor swore she would take the boy and destroy them both. Elena gave Tommy to me, and she vanished.”
“Where did she go?” I asked, my heart breaking for the girl who had begged me to save her things.
Sarah shook her head. “I don’t know. But every month, on the first, a black car drops off an envelope of cash. And inside the envelope is always a train ticket.”
Sarah reached into her pocket and pulled out a pristine, unused Amtrak ticket.
“A ticket to where?” Adrian asked, his voice hollow.
Sarah flipped it over.
“To a town in upstate New York,” Sarah said. “The exact town where your fiancée’s family lives.”
We all turned to look at Julia.
Julia stared at the ticket, her face pale, completely blind-sided by the revelation.
“I… I have no idea what that means,” Julia stammered.
May you like
But as she spoke, the front door of the apartment suddenly clicked. The deadbolt slid back.
Someone had a key.
