Chapter 6
She had not returned since the funeral.
“Why would she keep a storage room there?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you know who has the lease?”
Norah looked at the bottom of the letter.
There was no signature beyond her mother’s name.
There was no date.
Only a line written in smaller letters beneath the final sentence.
“Ask for the blue ledger.”
Norah’s hands went cold.
Mara noticed.
“What is it?”
“I’ve heard that name before.”
“From whom?”
Norah searched her memory.
The answer came slowly.
“Nico.”
Mara sat straighter.
“What did he say?”
“He was on the phone once.”
Norah remembered that night.
She had been in the kitchen of the penthouse, slicing peaches while Nico spoke in the hallway.
He had sounded tense.
“Bell Street is closed,” he had told someone.
Then, after a pause, “No, she can’t know about the ledger.”
At the time, Norah had assumed he was discussing one of his businesses.
She had not asked.
Nico had come into the kitchen moments later and kissed the back of her neck, and the question had disappeared beneath the warmth of his hands.
Now it returned with a sharper edge.
Mara reached for the letter.
“Maybe the ledger is about your mother’s business.”
“Maybe.”
“But Nico knew about it.”
Norah looked at the brass key in her palm.
“Why would he know?”
Mara did not answer.
The old phone on the table began to ring.
Both women froze.
The number was unfamiliar.
Norah stared at the screen until it stopped.
A message appeared beneath it.
Please call when you are alone.
There was no name.
A second message arrived before she could touch the phone.
Your mother left something that Nico has been searching for.
Norah felt the room tilt.
Mara took the phone from her hand.
“Who is this?”
Another message appeared.
Someone who promised your mother I would keep you away from Bell Street until you were ready.
Mara’s face changed.
Norah saw it and knew the message had frightened her.
“Do you know who it is?”
“No.”
“You’re lying.”
“I’m trying to understand.”
“Did my mother ever say anything to you?”
Mara put the phone down.
“Not directly.”
“Then indirectly.”
Mara pressed her lips together.
Norah stood.
For three years, she had accepted silence from everyone who claimed it was meant to protect her.
From Nico.
From his associates.
From the relatives who had stopped returning her mother’s calls.