Chapter 11 - THE FACE FROM THE HIGHWAY
“I saw him.”
The elevator remained frozen between floors.
Nobody spoke.
Alessandro stared at me.
“Who?”
I pressed both hands against my stomach.
“Matteo.”
Liam would have hated me for keeping this secret.
Maybe he had a right to.
“I was in the back seat.”
“My parents thought I was asleep.”
“A black car followed us from Chicago.”
“My father noticed it.”
“He told my mother not to turn around.”
My voice began shaking.
“They were arguing about whether to call Patrick.”
“Then the car pulled beside us.”
“I looked through the window.”
“Matteo was in the passenger seat.”
Alessandro looked sick.
“You are certain?”
“Yes.”
“I saw him clearly.”
“Then someone hit our SUV from behind.”
“My father lost control.”
“The brakes didn’t work.”
“My mother screamed.”
“I remember glass.”
“I remember rolling.”
“I remember waking upside down.”
I stopped.
The memory still had edges sharp enough to cut.
“My father was alive for maybe a minute.”
“He told me to crawl out.”
“My mother wasn’t moving.”
“I got through the broken rear window.”
“I hid beneath the embankment.”
“Two men came down from the road.”
“One was Matteo.”
“He looked inside the car.”
“He said something.”
Alessandro’s voice was barely audible.
“What?”
I closed my eyes.
“Make sure all three are dead.”
Silence filled the elevator.
“Why didn’t you tell Patrick?”
“I tried.”
“But when he came to the hospital, somebody had already told the police I wasn’t in the vehicle.”
“Patrick said that was good.”
“He said if the people responsible believed I died somewhere else, I might survive.”
“So we kept it out of every report.”
“After that, I became Emma.”
Alessandro stepped back as if the walls had moved.
“My uncle looked me in the eye for seven years knowing what he did.”
“Yes.”
The elevator suddenly restarted.
When the doors opened in the garage, Liam was waiting beside an SUV.
He ran toward us.
“What happened?”
Then he saw my face.
“What did you tell him?”
“Everything.”
Liam froze.
“Everything?”
“Yes.”
His expression filled with betrayal.
“You saw Matteo?”
“Yes.”
“You told me you remembered nothing.”
“I was scared.”
“My father spent years trying to prove what happened.”
“I know.”
“He died trying to protect you.”
“I know.”
“And you never told me?”
Tears burned my eyes.
“I was nineteen.”
“That doesn’t make it disappear.”
“No.”
Liam turned away.
I let him.
Some pain could not be argued into forgiveness.
Gabriel interrupted.
“We have forty-six minutes until Matteo’s deadline.”
Alessandro shook his head.
“He isn’t getting the drive.”
“Then he may expose Elizabeth.”
“Let him.”
I stared at Alessandro.
He looked at me.
“You cannot be blackmailed by a secret once you tell it yourself.”
My pulse jumped.
“You want me to go public?”
“I want Matteo to lose his leverage.”
“That means telling the world I lied about my identity.”
“Yes.”
“My nursing school could expel me.”
“Yes.”
“I could face questions from federal agencies.”
“Yes.”
“My whole life disappears.”
“No.”
His answer came firmly.
“The false life disappears.”
“You keep the real one.”
I laughed bitterly.
“You make that sound easy.”
“It will not be easy.”
He stepped closer.
“But running has not made you safe.”
That hurt because it was true.
For seven years, I had survived.
But I had not lived without looking behind me.
I looked at Liam.
He still would not meet my eyes.
Then my phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
A photograph loaded.
It showed Liam’s childhood home.
His mother still lived there.
Another message appeared.
ONE HOUR WAS GENEROUS.
Then a second photograph arrived.
May you like
Liam’s mother was walking toward her front porch.
A man stood twenty feet behind her.
