Chapter 24 - The Reporter Who Knew
Evelyn survived the gunshot.
The bullet entered below her shoulder and missed the artery by less than an inch. Nico called that luck. Julian called it bad aim. Lena called it unfinished business.
She called Milo from the hospital parking garage.
“Where are you?”
“At the office.”
“Stay there.”
“Lena, what happened?”
“You tell me.”
Silence.
That was enough.
She drove to the Mercy Ledger newsroom with Julian and Mara behind her.
Milo was alone when they entered. He looked at Lena, then at Mara, and slowly closed his laptop.
“You found Evelyn.”
“You knew she was alive.”
“Yes.”
Julian locked the door.
Milo glanced at him. “Is that supposed to frighten me?”
“It usually saves time.”
Lena placed the photograph of Sofia Reyes on the desk.
Milo’s face changed.
“Who is she?”
“You already know.”
He sat down.
“Sofia was my aunt.”
The answer was close enough to hurt and different enough to confuse.
“My father’s younger sister,” Milo continued. “She disappeared before I was born. My family was told she ran away.”
“Evelyn says Sofia was my biological mother.”
Milo looked at Lena as if he had been waiting years to hear the sentence spoken aloud.
“I suspected.”
“You suspected?”
“I found Saint Agnes records eight years ago. Most were damaged. One mentioned Sofia and a newborn girl transferred to Gabriel Ortiz.”
“And you never told me?”
“I didn’t know if the girl was you.”
“You investigated my father. You investigated Harbor House. You knew my birthday.”
“I knew dates could be forged.”
“So you said nothing.”
“I wanted proof.”
Julian gave a humorless laugh. “Welcome to the club of men who decide Lena can’t handle information.”
Milo looked at him. “You don’t get to make that speech.”
“No. I get to recognize it.”
Lena paced away from them.
“Why did Sofia give me to Gabriel?”
Milo opened a locked drawer and removed a cassette.
“Because she was afraid.”
The recording had been made by Milo’s father, Tomas Reyes, twenty-seven years earlier.
Sofia’s voice was young and shaking.
“They took Mara before Celeste woke up. They told me my baby would be next. Gabriel said he knew a woman who could keep her safe. Elena. I signed nothing. I surrendered nothing. I asked Gabriel to hide her until I could expose Evelyn.”
Lena closed her eyes.
Sofia continued.
“Miriam found out. She told Gabriel she would claim the baby as hers if he spoke. She said no one would believe a poor girl over Evelyn Sloane’s daughter.”
The tape ended.
Lena looked at Milo.
“What happened to Sofia?”
“I don’t know.”
“You spent eight years investigating.”
“And every trail ended with a death certificate.”
“Whose?”
Milo turned the laptop toward her.
SOFIA REYES. DECEASED.
Cause: accidental drowning.
The body had never been recovered.
Julian leaned closer. “No body means no certainty.”
“Exactly,” Milo said.
Mara had been silent.
Now she asked, “Why was I taken?”
Milo looked at her.
“Celeste threatened to report Saint Agnes. Evelyn ordered your adoption rushed before Celeste could stop it.”
“Evelyn admitted that?”
“No. Sofia did.”
Mara’s face crumpled, but she did not cry.
The newsroom phone rang.
Nobody moved.
It rang again.
Milo answered on speaker.
A woman’s voice said, “You should have destroyed the tape.”
Lena’s blood went cold.
Milo stood so quickly his chair fell.
“Aunt Sofia?”
The woman laughed softly.
“No, Milo.”
Lena recognized the voice.
She had heard it in court, on recordings, and in nightmares.
Miriam.
“You’re in prison,” Lena said.
“Am I?”
Julian was already calling the federal facility.
Miriam continued.
“Evelyn has always been careless when she thinks she is confessing. Ask her why Sofia drowned.”
The line went dead.
Julian stared at his phone.
“What?”
He looked at Lena.
“Miriam was transferred yesterday for a medical evaluation.”
“To where?”
“No one can tell me.”
Milo’s computer chimed.
A new email had arrived from an unknown sender.
The subject contained only two words:
HELLO, SISTER.
Attached was a photograph taken less than an hour earlier.
It showed Miriam standing beside the Bellwether River.
Free.
May you like
And beside her stood a woman with Lena’s eyes.
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