Chapter 3 - The Secret Beneath the Persian Rug
Saraphina stared at the photograph until the faces blurred.
“That isn’t me.”
Elias said nothing.
“It can’t be.”
He remained silent.
“My name is Saraphina.”
“I know.”
“I grew up in Jamaica.”
“I know.”
“My mother is Jacqueline Hayes.”
“I know.”
Every answer made her angrier.
“Then stop looking at me like I’m a ghost.”
Elias lowered the photograph.
“That girl disappeared twenty-one years ago.”
Saraphina swallowed.
“What does that have to do with me?”
“She had a scar.”
Her hand instinctively moved toward her back.
Elias noticed.
“From surgery.”
“I’ve never had surgery.”
“You might not remember.”
“My mother would.”
“Would she?”
The question hit harder than it should have.
Saraphina stood.
“Do not talk about my mother.”
“I’m asking questions.”
“You’re accusing the woman who raised me of lying about my entire life.”
“I’m asking whether there are parts of your early childhood she never explained.”
Saraphina opened her mouth.
Then stopped.
There were.
No baby pictures before approximately age five.
No hospital records.
No stories about first steps.
Whenever Saraphina asked, Jacqueline said a hurricane had destroyed boxes of photographs.
It had always made sense.
Until now.
Elias saw doubt enter her expression.
“What happened to Serena?”
He looked away.
“There was an accident.”
“What kind?”
“A car went off a mountain road during a storm.”
“Who was inside?”
“My mother. My brother. Serena.”
“Your sister?”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
Saraphina noticed.
“Then who?”
Elias hesitated.
“My mother protected her.”
“Why?”
“I was never told.”
Saraphina looked again at the photograph.
The little girl stood between Elias and Julian as naturally as family.
“Did you love her?”
His eyes lifted.
The question surprised him.
“Yes.”
“Like a sister?”
Another pause.
“Yes.”
Saraphina sat slowly.
Elias continued.
“I survived because I wasn’t in the car when it crashed.”
“Where were you?”
“Behind them with another vehicle.”
“What did you see?”
His face closed.
“I saw enough.”
Saraphina understood.
She did not press him.
Instead, she pointed to the photograph.
“Who wrote this?”
“My mother.”
Keep Serena safe. Always.
Something tightened inside Saraphina’s chest.
“Why do I recognize the handwriting?”
Neither had an answer.
Elias ordered her released from the interrogation room.
Not from his protection.
Saraphina objected immediately.
“I am going home.”
“You cannot.”
“You have no legal right to keep me.”
“I know.”
“Then move.”
Elias stepped aside.
Saraphina reached the hallway.
Then he said, “If someone deliberately erased Serena’s identity twenty-one years ago, and you are Serena, walking away may tell them you survived.”
She stopped.
Silence.
He did not have to threaten her.
Reality had done it for him.
“Who would want her dead?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’ve had twenty-one years.”
“And people have died because they asked.”
Saraphina turned.
“That sounds like your problem.”
“It became yours when Leo uncovered that panel.”
“What is behind it?”
Elias hesitated.
Finally, “Records.”
“What kind?”
“Transactions made by people who should not have access to them.”
“Criminal?”
He smiled without warmth.
“You’re asking a dangerous question.”
“You kidnapped me because I saw a red light. I think we passed dangerous hours ago.”
Against his will, Elias almost admired her.
He took her back to the mansion.
Leo ran into her arms the moment she entered.
Saraphina dropped to her knees and held him.
“You came back!”
“I promised, didn’t I?”
“You didn’t.”
She laughed despite everything.
“No. I suppose I didn’t.”
Across the room, Elias watched.
Something unfamiliar twisted inside him.
He remembered Serena laughing.
Not clearly.
Only fragments.
A missing front tooth.
Braids flying behind her.
Mud on a white dress.
His mother scolding them both.
Matteo approached quietly.
“We checked Jamaica.”
Elias looked at him.
“Jacqueline Hayes exists. School teacher. Widowed. No criminal history.”
“And Saraphina?”
“Records begin when she was five.”
Elias’s face hardened.
“Before that?”
“Nothing.”
Saraphina saw their expressions.
“What?”
Matteo looked toward Elias.
Elias answered.
“There is no official record of your birth.”
Her arms tightened around Leo.
“That’s impossible.”
“We checked.”
“My birth certificate—”
“I’ve seen it.”
“And?”
“I think it was created later.”
Saraphina felt the room tilt.
Leo looked up.
“Sara?”
She smiled automatically.
“I’m okay.”
She was not.
That evening Elias allowed her to call Jacqueline.
Saraphina put the phone on speaker.
Her mother answered on the third ring.
“Baby?”
Saraphina nearly cried at the familiar voice.
“Mom.”
“What happened? You sound tired.”
“I need to ask you something.”
Silence.
That silence frightened her.
“Do I have a scar on my back?”
Another silence.
Longer.
“Saraphina—”
“How did I get it?”
“You were sick.”
“You said fever.”
“Yes.”
“A fever caused a surgical scar?”
Jacqueline began crying.
Saraphina froze.
“Mom?”
“Oh, God.”
Elias stepped closer.
Saraphina barely noticed.
“Mom, please.”
Jacqueline whispered, “I always knew this day could come.”
Saraphina stopped breathing.
“Knew what?”
“I wanted to protect you.”
“From what?”
A sound came through the phone.
A door.
Then Jacqueline’s voice changed.
Fear.
Real fear.
“Saraphina, listen to me. Do not come home.”
“What?”
“Do not tell anyone where I am.”
“Mom—”
“If the man named Elias is with you—”
Saraphina looked directly at him.
Jacqueline continued.
“—tell him his mother kept her promise.”
The line went dead.
And three seconds later, Elias’s security system reported that someone had entered Jacqueline Hayes’s house in Kingston.
May you like
Someone had been waiting twenty-one years for that phone call.
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