Chapter 8 - The Woman in Room 17
Elias wanted to verify Daniel’s claim before we moved.
I wanted to leave immediately.
For once, we compromised.
His people searched Mercer’s properties while Arthur investigated private medical facilities connected to Mercer Holdings.
At 4:12 in the morning, they found one.
Saint Augustine Behavioral Residence.
Private.
Expensive.
Almost invisible online.
A holding company owned it.
That holding company belonged to another company.
That one ultimately led back to Mercer.
There was no Catherine Bennett on the patient list.
There was, however, a Jane Doe who had occupied Room 17 for seventeen years.
Seventeen years.
My mother had supposedly died seventeen years ago.
I could barely breathe.
“We’re going.”
Elias nodded.
“I know.”
Daniel sat handcuffed in another room.
Elias had refused to let him leave.
Part of me wanted to see him punished.
Another part wanted never to see his face again.
The twins remained at Elias’s penthouse with nurses and armed security.
Leaving them was agony.
Elias noticed me standing over their bassinets.
“They’ll be safe.”
“You can’t promise that.”
“No.”
His answer surprised me.
“I can promise everyone protecting them understands what happens if they fail.”
That was probably the closest Elias Vance came to reassurance.
We drove north before sunrise.
Snow covered the highways.
I watched the gray landscape pass and thought about my mother.
What if Arthur was wrong?
What if Room 17 contained someone else?
What if she no longer remembered me?
The questions became unbearable.
Elias sat across from me in the armored SUV.
“You don’t have to be strong every second.”
I looked at him.
“I don’t know how to be anything else.”
He nodded slightly.
“Neither did I.”
That was the first time I realized Elias Vance might understand survival more than I knew.
Saint Augustine looked more like an old mansion than a hospital.
Elias’s attorneys arrived with investigators and a court order obtained through Arthur’s contacts.
The administrator resisted.
Then Elias stepped through the door.
Resistance disappeared quickly.
We reached the second floor.
Room 17 stood at the end of a narrow hallway.
My legs stopped.
Elias stayed beside me.
“You ready?”
“No.”
He waited.
I finally reached for the handle.
The room was small.
A thin woman sat beside the window.
Her hair was almost entirely gray.
She turned toward us.
For several seconds, neither of us moved.
I did not recognize her face.
Then her eyes dropped to the necklace around my neck.
My grandfather had given it to me when I was twelve.
The woman stood so quickly her chair fell backward.
Her hands covered her mouth.
“Ava?”
My heart shattered.
“Mom?”
She crossed the room.
I fell into her arms.
For seventeen years, I had mourned a woman who had been imprisoned thirty miles from freedom.
My mother held my face.
“You have to leave.”
I stared at her.
“Why?”
Her eyes moved toward Elias.
“Because Vincent will come.”
A siren suddenly screamed throughout the facility.
Elias looked toward the hallway.
May you like
Catherine whispered.
“He always comes when someone opens that door.”
