I climbed into the car.
For the first time in twenty years, I was sitting inside the world of the man whose family had destroyed mine.
The driver said nothing as we drove through the rain.
I kept staring at the silver pendant.
“Where did you get it?”
“Mr. Bozack gave it to me.”
“Why?”
The driver hesitated.
“He said you would recognize it.”
My heart stopped.
When we reached Dom’s mansion, the front doors opened before I even touched them.
Dom was standing inside.
His suit was still stained with coffee.
But he wasn’t angry anymore.
He looked tired.
Almost broken.
“Come in,” he said.
I stepped inside.
On the table was an old photograph.
A young man stood beside a beautiful woman.
My mother.
I couldn’t breathe.
Dom watched my face.
“You know her.”
Tears filled my eyes.
“She was my mother.”
Dom closed his eyes.
For several seconds, he couldn’t speak.
Then he whispered,
“Her name was Elena.”
I nodded.
“She disappeared when I was six.”
Dom looked toward the photograph.
“She didn’t disappear.”
My entire body went cold.
“What do you mean?”
He pushed another photograph toward me.
It showed my mother standing beside a little boy.
The boy wore the same silver pendant.
I stared at his face.
Then at Dom.
“That’s your brother.”
Dom nodded.
“My younger brother, Daniel.”
“But Daniel died.”
Dom’s eyes filled with tears.
“That’s what I believed.”
He opened a drawer and pulled out an old envelope.
My name was written across it.
EMILY.
My hands began shaking.
“Where did you get this?”
“Your mother left it for you.”
I slowly opened the envelope.
Inside was a single handwritten letter.
I read the first line.
“Emily, if you’re reading this, Daniel is alive.”
I covered my mouth.
Dom stepped closer.
“There’s more.”
I looked at him.
He pointed to the final line.
My mother had written:
“Never trust the man who tells you Daniel is dead.”
Suddenly, the mansion lights went out.
A phone began ringing in the darkness.
Dom froze.
He looked at the screen.
The caller ID showed one name:
DANIEL BOZACK.
Dom answered with trembling hands.
A man’s voice came through the phone.
“Brother…”
Dom’s face turned white.
Then the voice continued:
“You should never have brought Emily home.”
I grabbed Dom’s arm.
“Who is that?”
Dom slowly looked at me.
His eyes were filled with fear.
“Emily…”
The voice came through the speaker one final time.
“I know what your mother told you.”
Then—
the call ended.
