Chapter 7 - Caught Inside the Secret Archive
"Dante!"
Mara hit the floor beside him.
Luca shouted commands.
Men rushed toward the exits.
Mara pressed both hands against Dante's side.
Blood covered her fingers.
His eyes opened.
"I'm fine."
"You've been shot."
"Technically grazed."
"You're bleeding all over me."
"I've done worse."
"Stop talking."
He looked almost amused.
"You're surprisingly bossy for a hostage."
"I was an unwilling guest."
"Important distinction."
Luca crouched.
"Bullet went through the side."
"Hospital," Mara said.
Dante shook his head.
"Gabriel."
"Your cousin can wait."
"No."
Mara leaned closer.
"If you die because you're being stubborn, I will personally bring you back and kill you again."
Dante stared at her.
Then Luca laughed.
Everyone turned.
"Sorry."
Dante glared.
"Hospital."
The wound required eighteen stitches.
No organ damage.
By evening Dante returned home despite medical advice.
Mara called him an idiot.
He informed her she was still welcome to leave.
Neither mentioned that she didn't.
The envelope from the warehouse changed everything.
Sofia Reyes had vanished from government records eight years earlier.
Emily had apparently relocated her using an unofficial protection network.
Vivien had helped.
The letter contained only one useful clue.
When the stars lead back to the beginning, Mara will understand where Sofia went.
Mara hated riddles.
She said so repeatedly.
Dante's private investigators began searching.
Meanwhile, the house tightened into a fortress.
Mara's destroyed apartment remained uninhabitable.
Arya asked her to stay.
Mara agreed to one week.
One week became ten days.
Arya began sleeping better.
She spoke more.
Dante noticed.
So did Mara.
What neither discussed was how easily Mara began slipping into the rhythm of the house.
Breakfast with Arya.
Homework after school.
Paper stars before bed.
Late-night coffee with Dante.
Arguments about whether children should be protected from every uncomfortable truth.
Arguments about security.
Arguments about Dante's tendency to solve problems by making terrifying phone calls.
And beneath it all, questions about Vivien.
Two weeks after the storm, Mara discovered the secret archive.
Not the underground room beneath the library.
A different archive.
Dante's personal one.
She was looking for construction plans.
At least that was what she told herself.
In truth, she'd noticed Dante disappear through a panel inside his office twice.
One evening he left for a meeting with Luca.
Arya was asleep.
Mrs. Alvarez had gone home.
Mara stood in the office staring at the panel.
"This is a terrible idea," she whispered.
Then she opened it.
Behind the wall was a fingerprint scanner.
Mara expected defeat.
Instead the device showed a numeric backup keypad.
She remembered Dante entering his office alarm code.
Arya's birthday.
Predictable for a supposedly unpredictable man.
The panel unlocked.
"That's embarrassing," Mara murmured.
The hidden room beyond was beautiful and unsettling.
Matte-black shelves.
Rows of labeled binders.
Warm strip lighting.
Locked drawers.
Polished black marble floor.
Nothing appeared criminal at first glance.
Property records.
Companies.
Family histories.
Investigations.
Dante kept information instead of trophies.
That somehow made more sense.
Mara searched for Vivien.
Nothing.
Emily.
Nothing.
Then she found:
ELLISON, MARA.
Her blood went cold.
The file contained photographs.
School records.
Employment history.
Notes about her counseling work.
Surveillance reports.
Everything.
Several entries predated Emily's death.
Mara's hands began shaking.
Dante had told her he knew nothing about her.
Had he lied?
She read faster.
A folder fell.
Something slipped out.
A handwritten document.
Vivien's writing.
Mara recognized it immediately.
Dante must not know Mara's significance until Sofia is safe.
Mara's pulse hammered.
Footsteps sounded behind her.
Slow.
Measured.
She froze.
A shadow filled the doorway.
Dante stood there.
Black suit.
Open collar.
One hand in his pocket.
His expression unreadable.
Mara remained kneeling beside the open drawer.
The document shook slightly between her fingers.
Dante looked at the drawer.
Then at her.
"That drawer was locked."
Mara swallowed.
"It wasn't very good at it."
"What are you doing?"
"I wasn't looking for money."
Dante stepped inside.
"Then what exactly were you looking for?"
Mara unfolded the page.
"Why is Vivien's handwriting in my file?"
His face changed.
"Give me the letter."
"No."
"Mara."
"No."
He stopped several feet away.
"You have an entire surveillance file on me."
"I didn't create it."
"It's in your archive."
"Because Vincent gave it to me after the fire."
"You never told me."
"I hadn't read all of it."
"Do you actually expect me to believe that?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because if I'd known Vivien had been watching you since you were sixteen, do you think I would have waited two weeks to ask why?"
Mara hesitated.
No.
Dante wouldn't have waited two minutes.
She hated that his personality was evidence supporting him.
"Then explain this."
"I can't."
"You knew the archive existed."
"My archive."
"Filled with other people's lives."
Dante's jaw tightened.
"Information keeps people alive."
"It also lets you control them."
"Sometimes."
"That's not a defense."
"I wasn't offering one."
Mara stood.
She held up the letter.
"Vivien said I have significance."
Dante nodded.
"Apparently."
"Do you know what?"
"No."
"Do you know where Sofia is?"
"No."
"Do you know why my sister died?"
"No."
Her voice broke.
"Then what do you know?"
Dante took a step closer.
"That I don't want you dead too."
The anger left Mara for one second.
Dante continued.
"That's what I know."
Something passed between them.
Too quiet.
Too close.
Mara stepped backward.
Her hip hit the desk.
Dante immediately stopped moving.
Neither spoke.
Then Mara looked again at the letter.
There was additional writing beneath the fold.
She hadn't noticed it.
A sentence.
If Mara finds this herself, tell her the truth about December eighteenth.
Mara read it twice.
"What happened December eighteenth?"
Dante's expression emptied.
"Dante?"
He looked away.
"That was the day Vivien died."
"No."
Mara checked the date.
"Vivien died December nineteenth."
"The crash was the eighteenth."
Mara's mind raced.
December eighteenth.
Something about that date.
Then she remembered.
Emily's death certificate.
"My sister died December eighteenth."
Dante looked at her.
"Six years ago."
"Vivien crashed exactly two years later?"
"Yes."
Mara stared at the letter.
"What truth?"
Dante walked toward another cabinet.
He unlocked it.
Inside were police photographs from Vivien's crash.
Mara covered her mouth.
Dante removed one image.
A road.
A damaged vehicle.
A bridge barrier.
"Both crashes happened here."
Mara stared.
"The same road?"
"The same curve."
"That isn't coincidence."
"No."
"Why didn't anyone notice?"
"I did."
Mara looked up sharply.
"You did?"
"I investigated Vivien's accident."
"And?"
"Brake line."
"Cut?"
"Damaged."
"Emily's too."
"Yes."
Mara's voice hardened.
"So you knew the crashes were connected."
"No. I didn't learn about Emily until tonight."
"Then what's the truth Vivien wanted you to tell me?"
Dante looked toward the floor.
For the first time since Mara had met him, he seemed afraid to speak.
"On December eighteenth, four years ago, Vivien called me."
Mara waited.
"She asked me to come home."
"And?"
"I didn't."
"Why?"
"I was dealing with Gabriel and a business dispute."
Mara said nothing.
"She called three times."
His voice lowered.
"I ignored the third call."
"Dante..."
"Her crash happened eleven minutes later."
Now Mara understood the guilt he carried.
But there was more.
She could see it.
"What aren't you saying?"
Dante opened his hand.
Inside was an old voice recorder.
"Vivien left a message."
"Have you heard it?"
"Once."
"What did she say?"
Dante pressed play.
Static filled the archive.
Then Vivien's voice.
Breathless.
Terrified.
"Dante, please listen. This isn't about Gabriel anymore. Shepherd knows about Mara. Emily was right. If anything happens to me, do not let them find Sofia. And Dante..."
A pause.
Vivien began crying.
"I'm sorry. Shepherd is someone you love."
The recording ended.
Mara stared at Dante.
Someone you love.
Gabriel?
Possibly.
Vincent?
Perhaps.
Luca?
Dante's oldest friend.
Mrs. Alvarez?
Family.
Then another realization came.
Mara looked toward the doorway.
"Where's Arya?"
Dante's face changed.
They ran upstairs.
Arya's bed was empty.
On the pillow lay one paper star.
Inside were three handwritten words.
Not Vivien's handwriting.
May you like
SHEPHERD HAS HER.
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