Chapter 4 - A MEETING IN THE RAIN
Roman read the message over my shoulder.
“You’re not going.”
“I haven’t said I was.”
“You’re considering it.”
“It’s my ex-husband. He used my identity. He may know why.”
“And he may be using you to get close to Elena.”
I folded my arms. “You can’t keep me in a locked room because someone
frightens you.”
His eyes narrowed. “I have no intention of locking you anywhere.”
“Then stop speaking as if I belong to your security plan.”
Elena watched us from the piano. “She’s right.”
Roman exhaled. “I know.”
He proposed a public meeting at a hotel café, with plainclothes security
nearby. I agreed on one condition: I would speak to Caleb myself. Roman
could observe, but he could not answer for me.
The rain was falling hard when I arrived. Caleb sat at a table near the
window, turning a coffee cup between his hands. He stood when he saw me.
“Maya.”
“Don’t.”
He looked at my face as though searching for the woman he had once
controlled.
“You look good.”
“You look exactly the same.”
He smiled. “I heard you were working for DeLuca.”
“You heard correctly.”
“Does he know what happened between us?”
“He knows enough.”
Caleb leaned closer. “Then he knows you can be difficult.”
I sat down. “You sent the envelopes?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
“Someone who owes your mother a favor.”
“My mother has been dead for six years.”
“People don’t stop owing debts when someone dies.”
I felt a chill.
“Why did you come to the mansion three years ago?”
His smile faded. “I was paid to retrieve a music box.”
“By whom?”
“Your employer’s mother.”
I stared at him.
“Roman’s mother?”
Caleb nodded. “She kept records. Names, payments, old agreements. The
music box contained a key.”
“What key?”
“I don’t know. I was supposed to take it to a man named Victor Sloane. I
never found it.”
“Why did you use my identity to open loans?”
He shrugged. “I needed money.”
“You ruined my credit. I lost my apartment. I spent two years in pain
while collectors called me every morning.”
“You were going to leave me anyway.”
“I left because you nearly killed me.”
His face hardened. “You always make me the villain.”
“You forged my name.”
He leaned back. “I didn’t send the envelopes, Maya. But I know who did.
And if you want the truth, you should ask Roman what his mother was
doing with your mother’s name.”
I felt the floor shift beneath me.
“My mother never knew the DeLucas.”
Caleb smiled without warmth.
“That’s what you think.”
He slid a small card across the table. It carried an address and a time.
“Come tomorrow. I’ll show you the records.”
I didn’t touch it.
“Why should I trust you?”
“You shouldn’t.”
He stood, then leaned down.
“But if you don’t come, Sloane will get to the music box first.”
He walked away.
Roman’s security chief appeared beside me as soon as Caleb left. He
placed the card in an evidence sleeve.
“Mr. DeLuca wants you back at the mansion.”
May you like
I looked at the rain streaking the window.
“Tell him I want the truth about my mother.”
