“Where are we going?”
“The hospital.”
“What did your guard tell you?”
“That someone attempted to access Miles’s records twenty minutes ago.”
My pulse quickened.
“Who?”
“They used your father’s authorization.”
I stared through the rain-streaked window.
“Could it have been him?”
“Yes.”
“But you don’t think it was.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because the request was made from inside St. Catherine’s Hospital.”
The car moved into traffic.
I reached for my phone and called Miles.
No answer.
I called again.
Still nothing.
“He may be sleeping,” Dante said.
“He always answers when I call twice.”
I tried a third time.
The line connected.
For one second, I heard only soft static.
Then Miles spoke.
“Serena?”
Relief rushed through me so hard that my eyes closed.
“Miles. Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. Why are you whispering?”
“I’m not.”
“You sound strange.”
I looked down at the white dress beneath my stepmother’s coat.
“I left the wedding.”
There was a pause.
Then Miles exhaled.
“Good.”
I sat forward. “You knew?”
“I knew you weren’t happy.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Because you kept telling me you were doing it for yourself.”
His voice was weak, but there was no confusion in it.
“I thought maybe I was wrong,” he continued. “Then a woman came to see me.”
Dante leaned forward.
“What woman?” I asked.
“She said she was an old friend of Mom’s.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“Is she there now?”
“No. She left something for you.”
“What?”
“A key.”
Dante and I looked at each other.
“Miles, listen to me. Do not give that key to anyone.”
“I didn’t.”
“Where is it?”
A strange silence followed.
Then my brother said, “Serena, there’s something else.”
“What?”
“The woman showed me a picture.”
My heart began to pound.
“What picture?”
“Mom.”
I looked at the photograph in my lap.
“Was it this one? Blue sweater? White house?”
“No.”
His voice lowered.
“It was taken last week.”
The city blurred beyond the window.
I could not speak.
Dante’s eyes remained fixed on me.
Miles continued carefully.
“Serena, I think Mom is alive.”
The car seemed to lose all sound.
Even the rain vanished.
I pressed the phone to my ear.
“What did the woman say?”
“She said Mom couldn’t come to the hospital yet.”
“Why not?”
“Because someone has been watching me.”
Dante signaled to the driver.
The car accelerated.
“Miles, lock your door.”
“It is locked.”
“Do not open it for anyone except me.”
“Serena—”
“Promise me.”
“I promise.”
A soft sound came through the line.
Not from Miles.
A knock.
Three measured taps.
My brother stopped breathing.
I could hear it in the silence.
“Miles?” I whispered.
Another knock came.
Then a woman’s voice spoke from the other side of his hospital-room door.
Not loud.
Not frightened.
Familiar in a way that reached across seventeen years and touched the oldest part of me.
“Miles,” she said, “it’s Eleanor. I need you to let me in before your sister arrives.”
END OF PART 2 – LIKE, SHARE AND COMMENT “”THE ENTIRE STORY”” IF YOU WANT TO READ THE FULL STORY.
