Chapter 2 - The Woman Named Elena
Mariana refused to let Alejandro come closer.
“Unlock the door.”
“Mariana—”
“Unlock it.”
Something in her voice finally reached him.
Alejandro opened the door.
Mariana wrapped Lucy in towels and helped her into a robe. She then called the family physician, Dr. Carter, and insisted he come immediately.
Alejandro did not object.
That frightened her.
He remained unusually calm while Lucy sat trembling on the chaise near the windows.
“You’re Elena?” Mariana asked.
Lucy shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
“But you recognized the locket.”
“I recognized the music.”
Mariana frowned.
“What music?”
Lucy touched the metal edge.
Mariana opened the locket again.
A tiny mechanical tune played.
Three delicate notes.
Lucy began crying.
“I used to sing that to someone.”
Mariana stopped breathing.
Her mother had sung the same melody every night when Mariana was little.
“A little girl?”
Lucy nodded.
Mariana’s throat closed.
“What was her name?”
Lucy pressed both hands against her temples.
“I can’t…”
Alejandro suddenly spoke.
“Don’t force her.”
Mariana spun toward him.
“You don’t get to tell me what to do.”
Alejandro looked wounded.
Good.
She wanted him wounded.
“You brought her here intentionally.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I suspected.”
“For how long?”
“Two weeks.”
Mariana stared.
Two weeks earlier, Alejandro had begun volunteering at the soup kitchen.
Not charity.
Search.
“You were looking for her.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Alejandro glanced toward Lucy.
Then said:
“Because someone sent me a photograph.”
He removed his phone.
The image showed Lucy sleeping beneath a bus-terminal awning.
Beneath it was one sentence.
YOU SHOULD HAVE MADE SURE SHE WAS DEAD.
Mariana’s legs nearly gave out.
“Who sent this?”
“I don’t know.”
“You didn’t tell me?”
“I was trying to verify whether it was real.”
“And when you found her, you brought her into our home?”
“I needed to know whether she recognized you.”
Mariana laughed bitterly.
“So the bath was a test.”
Alejandro said nothing.
“You made me wash her because you wanted me to find the birthmark.”
“Yes.”
Lucy looked between them.
“You knew about the mark?”
Alejandro nodded.
Mariana’s fury exploded.
“How?”
He closed his eyes.
“Because twenty years ago, I saw your mother without her coat after the accident.”
Mariana froze.
“You told me you never met my mother.”
“I lied.”
“When?”
“The first day we met.”
Fifteen years of marriage suddenly shifted beneath her feet.
Mariana stared at the man she had loved since she was twenty-one.
“What accident?”
Alejandro swallowed.
“The one everyone told you killed Elena.”
Mariana’s heart pounded.
“My mother’s body was never recovered.”
“I know.”
“Because there was no body?”
“Yes.”
Before Mariana could ask another question, Lucy suddenly whispered:
“There was another girl.”
Everyone turned.
Lucy’s face had gone white.
“At the construction site.”
Mariana moved closer.
“What girl?”
Lucy stared directly at Alejandro.
“Your sister.”
Alejandro’s expression collapsed.
May you like
Mariana frowned.
Alejandro had always told her he was an only child.
