Chapter 17
My eyes burned.
“I felt second.”
“I know.”
Vanessa’s voice softened.
“And that was his failure.”
Not mine.
Not hers.
His.
The clarity of it hurt more than hatred ever had.
I finally picked up the letter.
“You should talk to him.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“I already did, years ago.”
“What happened?”
“He told me it was none of my business.”
“That also sounds like him.”
This time we both smiled.
Then Vanessa became serious.
“There’s something else you need to understand.”
My stomach tightened again.
“What?”
“When I saw Noah and Lily, I wasn’t frightened because I thought Adrian would hurt them.”
“I never thought that.”
“I know.”
She glanced toward the door.
“I was frightened because children become weaknesses in Adrian’s world.”
The old fear returned.
“Did anyone else see us?”
“Not that I know of.”
“Were you followed?”
“No.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“Then there was no one watching us except you?”
Vanessa held my gaze.
“No one that I saw.”
Air slowly returned to my lungs.
The terrifying mystery that had followed me from O’Hare changed shape.
Vanessa had been the watcher.
The photograph had not been a threat.
It had been a warning.
Or perhaps a confession.
The danger had never been an unknown shadow standing outside Harvard.
The danger was older.
It was the life Adrian had chosen long before I met him.
A life my children had just inherited a connection to whether I wanted it or not.
Vanessa stood.
“I’m leaving Chicago.”
“Where?”
“Somewhere quiet.”
“For treatment?”
She nodded.
I surprised both of us by saying, “I hope it works.”
Her eyes filled.
“Thank you.”
She walked toward the chapel door.
Before reaching it, she turned.
“For what it’s worth, Evelyn, he never loved me the way he loved you.”
I looked at the letter in my hands.
“That didn’t stop him from destroying us.”
“No.”
Vanessa opened the door.
“Love doesn’t make cowards brave.”
Then she stepped outside.
Adrian moved toward her.
She stopped him with one raised hand.
Whatever passed between them lasted less than a minute.
Then Vanessa walked away.
Adrian did not follow.
He entered the chapel.
His eyes dropped to the letter in my hand.
Recognition appeared immediately.
“She kept it.”
“You knew about this?”
“No.”
He looked at the folded paper.
“But I recognize her handwriting.”
I stood.
“She told me everything.”
Adrian became very still.