Chapter 7 - My Mother’s Truth
Dante reached me before anyone else.
He grabbed me around the waist and carried me behind a concrete wall.
“What were you thinking?”
“My mom.”
“I know.”
Another burst of gunfire ripped through the warehouse.
Dante pushed me behind several metal drums.
“Stay here.”
This time, I listened.
Mostly.
I could see Nathaniel fighting Calder near my mother’s chair.
Calder struck him with the gun.
Nathaniel staggered.
Then my mother kicked Calder’s knee.
He fell.
Nathaniel slammed him against a steel beam.
Guards poured into the building.
Calder’s remaining men surrendered or ran.
Dante cut my mother’s ropes.
I rushed toward her.
“Mom.”
She collapsed to her knees and wrapped both arms around me.
She was shaking harder than I was.
“Ruby.”
She held my face.
“What were you thinking?”
“Apparently everyone asks me that today.”
My mother began laughing and crying at the same time.
Then she looked past me.
Nathaniel stood several feet away.
Blood ran from a cut above his eyebrow.
Neither of them spoke.
I looked between them.
“You two have a lot to talk about.”
Dante coughed to hide a laugh.
Nathaniel stepped closer.
“Elena.”
My mother stood.
“Nathaniel.”
“I thought you were dead.”
“I thought staying dead to you would keep Ruby alive.”
His eyes dropped to me.
“She’s mine?”
My mother’s silence answered before she did.
“Yes.”
Nathaniel closed his eyes.
The warehouse suddenly felt too quiet.
My mother continued.
“I found out three weeks after I left.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Calder sent photographs.”
“Of what?”
“Men watching me.”
“Doctors.”
“My apartment.”
“My brother’s funeral.”
Her voice trembled.
“He said if I contacted you, Ruby would never survive long enough to be born.”
Nathaniel stared at Calder.
Two guards had him restrained.
Nathaniel looked ready to kill him.
My mother stepped between them.
“No.”
Nathaniel stopped.
“Not in front of Ruby.”
He looked at me.
Then slowly stepped back.
Police sirens sounded outside.
Federal agents entered moments later.
Apparently Dante had contacted them before the rescue.
Calder laughed as agents handcuffed him.
“You think this ends with me?”
Nathaniel watched silently.
Calder looked at my mother.
“Tell him, Elena.”
My mother’s face changed.
Nathaniel noticed.
“Tell me what?”
Calder smiled.
“Why do you think I waited eleven years?”
No one answered.
“Because someone more powerful than me wanted Graves weakened.”
Nathaniel stepped forward.
“Who?”
Calder’s smile disappeared.
“You still don’t know.”
Then he looked directly at me.
“But Ruby’s eviction notice was signed by someone standing closer to you than family.”
Nathaniel turned toward Dante.
Dante shook his head.
Not him.
Calder was dragged away.
My mother took my hand.
Nathaniel looked at us.
“We go back to the tower.”
My mother immediately refused.
“No.”
“Elena.”
“I spent eleven years staying away from that world.”
“And that world just kidnapped you.”
She stared at him.
Then I asked the question that ended the argument.
“Can we fight tomorrow?”
They both looked at me.
May you like
“I’m hungry.”
For the first time that terrible night, Nathaniel Graves laughed.
