Gabriel did not speak for several minutes after Jessie announced they were all going to meet Evan.
Jessie let the silence sit.
There had been a time when silence made her uncomfortable. She would fill it with a threat, a joke, a question designed to force the other person to reveal something. Vale had taught her that silence created pressure, and pressure made people careless.
Eleven months of trying to live like a normal person had taught her something else.
Sometimes people simply needed time to think.
Anna finally stood and carried the mugs into the kitchen. “Before anyone goes anywhere tomorrow night, you need to hear the rest.”
Jessie looked at her. “There’s more?”
Anna turned on the tap. “There is always more.”
“I am beginning to miss the part of my life where my biggest problem was explaining a twelve-year gap in my employment history.”
Gabriel looked at her. “You don’t have a twelve-year gap.”
“Legally, I do.”
Anna glanced over her shoulder. “What did you put on applications?”
“Consulting.”
Gabriel almost smiled. “That’s technically true.”
“So is ‘independent acquisitions specialist,’ but apparently that raises questions.”
Anna shook her head, but Jessie caught the faintest smile before it disappeared.
It was strange how easily ordinary humour could exist beside terrible things. Jessie had once believed grief required solemnity, that guilt had to look a certain way, that people who laughed after tragedy somehow weren’t taking it seriously enough. She knew better now. Sometimes laughter wasn’t disrespect. Sometimes it was simply the body’s refusal to drown.
Anna returned to the table with the notebook.
“You’ve been assuming Daniel’s investigation was primarily about Vale.”
Jessie folded her arms. “You’re going to tell me it wasn’t.”
“It started with Vale. It didn’t end there.”
Gabriel’s expression changed. “What do you mean?”
Anna opened the notebook.
“Daniel believed Vale’s work had been funded.”
Jessie frowned. “By the organization.”
“Partly.”
“What does partly mean?”
“It means Vale wasn’t doing this in the back of a church because he was an eccentric psychologist with a personal fascination.”
Jessie looked at Gabriel. “Did you know?”
“No.” She believed him.
Anna continued. “Daniel found payments. Some came through businesses connected to the criminal organization. Others came from somewhere else.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
Jessie closed her eyes briefly.
Anna sighed. “Yes, I know. You hate that answer.”
“I am developing a physical reaction to it.”
“The records were deliberately obscured. Shell organizations, foundations, consulting firms. Daniel followed what he could, but he never identified the original source.”
Gabriel leaned forward. “How much money?”
“Enough that Daniel stopped believing Vale was working alone.”
Jessie thought about St. Catherine’s. The vulnerable teenagers, psychological profiles, controlled fear, the loyalty tests.
People disappearing.
“You’re saying someone paid him to develop this.”
“Yes.”
“For criminals?”
“Maybe.”
“That isn’t an answer either.”
“Because I don’t have one.”
Jessie resisted the urge to argue.
“Fine. What did Daniel think?”
Anna looked at her.
“He thought Vale was trying to prove that loyalty could survive memory disruption.”
Jessie stopped moving.
Gabriel frowned. “Memory disruption?”
Anna nodded.
“Not simple amnesia. Vale was interested in whether a conditioned response could remain after the person no longer consciously remembered why it existed.”
Jessie’s stomach tightened.
Her missing months.
Daniel.
Vale.
Dr. Vale helping her forget.
Except perhaps helping had never been the right word.
“That’s what I was proof of.”
Anna looked at her carefully. “Maybe.”
Jessie stared at the table.
“M.M. remains the control.”
Gabriel understood at the same time.
“Michael remembered.”
Anna nodded.
“And Jessie didn’t.”
Jessie looked between them.
“Yet Vale considered both of us part of the same model.”
“That’s what the notes suggest.”
Jessie stood and began pacing.
Thinking was easier when she moved.
“Michael was exposed to Vale’s methods as a child. Whatever Vale did to him remained while Michael retained his memories. That’s the control.”
Gabriel nodded slowly.
“And you?”
Jessie stopped.
“I forgot.”
Anna watched her.
“But something remained.”
The words made Jessie uncomfortable.
“What?”
“That,” Anna said, “is what Daniel was trying to figure out.”
Jessie looked at her.
“Before the fire?”
“Yes.”
“Daniel knew Vale might erase my memory?”
“I think he suspected it was possible.”
“Then why didn’t he tell me?”
Anna’s expression softened.
“He tried.”
Jessie almost laughed.
“Of course he did.”
A memory stirred.
Daniel sitting across from her in a diner.
Jessie stealing fries from his plate despite having her own.
His expression unusually serious.
If you woke up tomorrow and couldn’t remember me, what would you do?
Jessie had laughed. Probably have a much quieter life.
But Daniel hadn’t laughed.
Jessie closed her eyes.
“Oh.”
Anna saw it.
“You remember.”
“A diner.”
Gabriel said nothing.
“Daniel asked what I’d do if I couldn’t remember him.”
Anna nodded.
Jessie searched the fragment.
“I told him I’d have a quieter life.”
“That sounds like you.”
“He asked again.”
The rest came slowly.
What would you do, Jessie?
She had rolled her eyes.
I don’t know. Figure out who stole my memories and rob them.
Daniel smiled.
Then what?
Jessie had stared at him.
Then I’d decide if whatever I forgot was worth getting back.
The memory faded.
Jessie opened her eyes.
“He knew.”
“Not exactly,” Anna said. “But he was afraid.”
“Of Vale?”
“Yes.”
Jessie looked down at her hands. “And then after Daniel died, I asked to forget.”
Jessie noticed as Gabriel shifted. “What?”
He hesitated. She stared at him.
“Gabriel.”
“You didn’t ask immediately.”
Jessie’s pulse changed.
“What does that mean?”
“The night Daniel died, you didn’t want to forget anything.”
Anna looked at Gabriel sharply.
“You told me she did.”
“I know.”
Jessie remained very still.
“When did I ask?”
“Two weeks later.”
“Why?”
Gabriel looked exhausted.
“Because you were getting worse.”
“What does worse mean?”
“You weren’t sleeping. You barely ate. You kept reliving the fire. Sometimes you’d disappear for hours and come back without telling anyone where you’d been.”
“Trauma.”
“Yes.”
“That doesn’t explain why I suddenly asked someone connected to Vale to interfere with my memory.”
“No.”
Jessie waited.
Gabriel looked at Anna.
Anna shook her head. “I wasn’t there.”
Jessie turned back to him.
“What happened during those two weeks?”
“You were looking for Evan.”
Jessie stopped.
Of course she was.
She had believed Evan was dead, but his body hadn’t been identified.
“You didn’t believe he was dead.”
“No.”
“Did I find him?”
Gabriel hesitated.
Jessie’s stomach dropped.
“Did I find Evan?”
“Yes.”
The room became completely silent.
Anna stared at him. “You told me she never found him.”
“I lied.”
Anna stood. “You let me believe he was dead for twenty-four years.”
“I was trying to keep you alive.”
Anna laughed bitterly. “There it is again.”
Gabriel looked ashamed but Jessie didn’t care about his shame at that moment.
“Where did I find him?”
Gabriel looked at her.
“A motel.”
“Same one where I left him?”
“No. Another city.”
“How?”
“You tracked one of Vale’s people.”
“Did you come with me?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know?”
“Because you came back.”
Jessie felt cold.
“Alone?”
“Yes.”
“What did I say?”
“Almost nothing.”
Jessie walked toward him.
“Gabriel.”
“You were gone for two days. When you came back, you had blood on your clothes.”
Anna inhaled sharply.
Jessie stared at Gabriel. “Was it mine?”
“No.”
“Evan’s?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did I say he was alive?”
“Yes.”
Jessie’s heart pounded. “What exactly did I say?”
Gabriel’s voice became quiet. “You said, ‘Evan is alive, and I wish he wasn’t.’”
Jessie stepped backward. No memory came, nothing. An entire confrontation had been removed so completely that her mind offered only darkness.
“What happened between us?”
“I don’t know.”
Gabriel’s voice broke slightly. “For once, Jessie, I genuinely don’t know.”
She believed him.
That was worse.
“You asked me to take you to Vale the next morning.”
Anna stared.
“You took her back to him?”
Gabriel looked at her. “She threatened to disappear if I didn’t.”
“That doesn’t make it better.”
“I know.”
Jessie raised a hand. “Stop.”
She needed to think.
“I find Evan. I come back covered in blood. I say I wish he were dead. The next morning I ask you to take me to Vale.”
“Yes.”
“And that’s when I ask to forget?”
“No.”
Jessie stared.
“Then what happened?”
“Vale refused.”
That surprised her. “Refused what?”
“To alter your memory.”
Jessie frowned. “Why?”
“He said it was too dangerous.”
Anna laughed without humour. “Vale suddenly developed ethics?”
Gabriel shook his head. “He said Jessie wasn’t stable enough.”
Jessie considered that. “That’s not compassion. That’s protecting the experiment.”
“Probably.”
“What changed his mind?”
Gabriel’s face tightened. “You did.”
Jessie waited. “You offered him something.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
Jessie nearly slammed the table again. Gabriel continued quickly. “You made me leave the room.”
“Did Vale tell you later?”
“No.”
“How long was I alone with him?”
“About an hour.”
“And afterward?”
“He agreed.”
Jessie sat slowly. Something had happened during that hour. A bargain. She had traded something for forgetting.
“Did I seem relieved?”
Gabriel thought about it. “No.”
“Scared?”
“Yes.”
“Did I say anything?”
“One thing.”
Jessie looked at him.
“You told me that if you ever started asking about Evan, I was supposed to stop you.”
Anna’s expression changed.
“Why Evan specifically?”
Gabriel shook his head. “I asked. She wouldn’t tell me.”
Jessie stared at the photograph. Evan’s message returned.
YOU LEFT ME ONCE. DON’T AGAIN.
Maybe that wasn’t referring to the motel. Maybe it referred to their second meeting.
Jessie reached for her phone. “I’m calling him.”
Gabriel stood. “That’s probably exactly what he wants.”
“I know.”
“Then don’t.”
Jessie looked at him. “He’s been controlling this conversation from a distance for hours. I’m done.”
Anna shook her head. “He may not answer.”
“Then he can ignore me.”
Jessie called the number. It rang once, twice. And then someone answered. There was no greeting so Jessie just waited. The breathing on the other end was quiet.
“Evan.”
Silence.
“This is the part where normal people say hello.”
A man’s voice answered.
“You were never normal.”
Jessie closed her eyes.
She knew the voice. Older., deeper but she knew it. Her body recognized him before her memory did.
“You sound disappointed.”
“I haven’t decided yet.”
“About what?”
“You.”
Jessie looked at Anna and Gabriel. “Fair.” Evan was silent.
Jessie continued. “I’m not waiting until tomorrow.”
“Yes, you are.”
“No.”
A quiet laugh.
That bothered her more than anger would have.
“You still think stubbornness is a strategy.”
“It has an excellent success rate.”
“It didn’t with me.”
Jessie felt the words land. “What happened at the motel?”
“Which motel?”
Her stomach tightened. “So there were two.”
“You already know that.”
“I don’t remember the second one.”
“I know.”
“What did I do to you?”
Evan didn’t answer so again, Jessie waited. Vale had taught her silence could create pressure. Evan had learned the same lesson.
Eventually he spoke. “You saved my life.”
“I know that part.”
“You abandoned me.”
“I know that too.”
“You came back.”
“Yes.”
“You found me.”
“Yes.”
“And then?”
Silence again. Jessie tightened her grip on the phone. “Tell me.”
Evan’s voice changed. “You asked me to forgive you.”
Jessie hadn’t expected that. “Did you?”
“No.”
She swallowed. “What happened?”
“I told you what Vale had done.”
“What?”
“To all of us.”
“I already knew about the candidates.”
“Not that.”
Jessie looked at Anna.
Anna looked equally confused.
“What didn’t I know?”
Evan exhaled slowly.
“You didn’t know why Vale chose us.”
“For loyalty.”
“No.”
Jessie frowned. “Then what?”
“Loyalty was the mechanism.”
“For what?”
“Replacement.”
Nobody moved.
Jessie felt a chill.
“What does that mean?”
“Vale didn’t want to create loyal people. He wanted to know whether one attachment could be removed and replaced by another.”
Jessie stared at the wall.
Daniel.
Evan.
Vale.
“Memory.”
“Yes.”
“If you remove the memory of why someone loves or trusts a person…”
“Does the attachment disappear?”
Jessie understood.
“And if it does…”
“Can you give it to someone else?”
Anna whispered something Jessie couldn’t hear.
Jessie felt sick.
“Michael was the control.”
“Yes.”
“What was he attached to?”
Evan went quiet.
“Daniel.”
Jessie’s stomach dropped.
Michael had stabbed Daniel.
“What did Vale do?”
“He spent years turning Michael’s love for his brother into resentment.”
Jessie closed her eyes.
“And me?”
“You were supposed to prove Vale didn’t need years.”
Jessie thought about the note.
The model functions without continued intervention.
“What did he replace?”
Evan laughed softly.
“You still don’t see it.”
“Then explain it.”
“Vale wasn’t trying to make you stop loving Daniel.”
Jessie waited.
“He wanted to see whether he could make you love someone else more.”
Jessie’s heart pounded.
“Who?”
Evan said nothing.
Jessie knew before he answered.
“You.”
His voice came quietly through the phone.
“Me.”
The room seemed to disappear.
Jessie looked at Evan’s photograph.
“You were assigned to me.”
“Yes.”
“Vale wanted me attached to you.”
“Yes.”
“But I chose Daniel.”
“Yes.”
“So he failed.”
“No.”
Jessie stopped.
Evan’s voice became colder.
“He succeeded.”
Jessie stared.
“How?”
“Because you came back for me.”
“That doesn’t mean—”
“You left Daniel behind.”
Jessie froze.
“No.”
“You don’t remember.”
“I went back.”
“Eventually.”
That word again. Jessie felt suddenly nauseated.
“What happened?”
“You had a choice during the fire.”
Jessie could barely speak.
“Between you and Daniel.”
“Yes.”
“And I chose you.”
“At first.”
Jessie closed her eyes.
Smoke.
Evan’s arm around her.
Daniel shouting somewhere behind them.
Jessie following Evan toward the exit.
She remembered the doorway.
Cold night air.
Safety.
Then stopping.
Daniel.
She had turned around.
“I went back.”
“Yes.”
“So Vale failed.”
Evan’s voice softened.
“No, Jessie. Vale’s test wasn’t whether you would abandon Daniel forever.”
Jessie waited.
“It was whether, for even one moment, you would choose me first.”
Jessie understood.
Proof that the model worked. Not perfectly, not permanently but enough. Vale had managed to interfere with something Jessie believed belonged only to her.
Choice.
Her phone felt heavy in her hand. “Why did I ask to forget?”
Evan went silent.
Jessie knew this was the real question. “Evan.”
“When you found me two weeks later, I told you the truth.”
“What truth?”
“That I knew about the experiment.”
Jessie’s chest tightened. “How long?”
“Before the fire.”
Anna whispered, “Oh God.”
Jessie didn’t look at her. “You knew Vale paired us.”
“Yes.”
“You knew he wanted me to choose you over Daniel.”
“Yes.”
“And you let it happen.”
Another silence. “Yes.”
Jessie’s anger came slowly. That slow burn made it worse.
“Why?”
“Because I was seventeen.”
“Not good enough.”
“I loved you.”
Jessie stopped.
Not romantic, necessarily. Not the way she had loved Daniel. Something messier. Dependency. Loyalty. Survival. The kind of attachment Vale had been cultivating.
Evan continued. “You were the first person who came back for me. The first person who fought for me. The first person who made me believe I wasn’t disposable.”
“And then I left you.”
“Yes.”
“Because Vale lied.”
“Yes.”
“And you still came back for me during the fire.”
“Yes.”
Jessie closed her eyes. “Why?”
“Because Vale was wrong about one thing.”
“What?”
“He thought the attachment only went one way.”
Jessie opened her eyes.
Evan’s voice was almost gentle.
“It didn’t.”
For a moment Jessie couldn’t speak.
Then she remembered something.
A motel room.
Evan sitting across from her.
Older somehow, though only days had passed.
Jessie was crying.
Not because Daniel was dead, but because Evan had known.
You let him use us.
Evan answering: I thought I could control it.
Jessie: You sound just like him.
Then the memory vanished.
Jessie gasped. Gabriel stepped forward but she waved him back.
“I remember the motel.”
Evan said nothing.
“I told you that you sounded like Vale.”
“Yes.”
“What happened next?”
“You tried to kill me.”
The room went still.
Jessie looked at Anna.
Anna’s face had gone white.
“With the gun?”
“No.”
Jessie forced herself to ask.
“How?”
“You don’t need the details.”
That surprised her. “You’re protecting me?”
“No. I’m protecting myself.” That was fair.
“Did I hurt you?”
“Yes.”
“How badly?”
“Enough.”
Jessie swallowed. “Whose blood was on my clothes?”
“Mine.”
There it was. No excuse, no reframing, no compassionate explanation.
Jessie had hurt him. “Why did I stop?”
Evan was quiet for a long time. “Because I didn’t fight back.”
Jessie’s eyes burned. “You told me if I wanted you dead, you’d let me do it.”
“Yes.”
“And I couldn’t.”
“No.”
Jessie looked at the floor. “What did I do?”
“You left.”
Again.
“I left you again.”
“Yes.”
“And went to Vale.”
“Yes.”
“To forget.”
“Yes.”
Jessie’s voice cracked.
“Because I couldn’t live with what I’d done.”
Evan answered quietly. “No.”
Jessie frowned. “Then why?”
“Because I told you something before you left.”
Her pulse quickened. “What?”
Evan exhaled. “That Vale had another candidate.”
Jessie looked at the photograph. “Michael?”
“No.”
“Who?”
“The tenth.”
Jessie stopped. There were only nine people in the photograph. Daniel said there were seven before Jessie. Anna said Jessie was nine, but Evan was telling her the program continued.
“Who was Candidate Ten?”
Evan’s answer came softly. “You never met her.”
“Then why would I erase my memory because of her?”
“Because Vale had chosen her to replace you.” Jessie didn’t understand.
Evan continued. “You weren’t supposed to be the end of the experiment, Jessie. You were supposed to be the template.”
Her stomach tightened. “For what?”
“For everyone who came after.”
Jessie felt sick. “What happened to Candidate Ten?”
“I don’t know.”
“You’ve had twenty-four years.”
“I’ve spent twenty-four years trying to find her.”
Jessie closed her eyes. “Why didn’t you tell Anna?”
“I didn’t trust Anna.”
“Gabriel?”
“I didn’t trust Gabriel.”
“Daniel?”
“He was dead.”
Jessie absorbed that. “Michael?”
Evan laughed bitterly. “Especially not Michael.”
Nathan’s warning.
DON’T TRUST MICHAEL MERCER.
Jessie opened her eyes. “Does Michael know who Candidate Ten is?”
“Yes.”
“Where is he?”
“I don’t know.”
“Evan.”
“I genuinely don’t.” She believed him and that frightened her.
“What did Candidate Ten have to do with me forgetting?”
Evan hesitated. “Vale told you that if you allowed him to erase the St. Catherine’s period from your memory, he’d shut the program down.”
Jessie stared at nothing. “And I believed him?”
“You wanted to.” Of course she did. She had just killed Daniel, hurt Evan and had seen what Vale had done. If forgetting herself could end it, nineteen-year-old Jessie might have considered that a price worth paying.
“Did he shut it down?”
“No.” Jessie already knew this.
Evan continued. “He moved it.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“How many more candidates?”
“I don’t know.” The answer no longer irritated her, it terrified her.
“How long did it continue?”
Evan was silent.
Jessie knew.
“Evan.”
“Years.”
Anna sat down heavily while Gabriel swore under his breath. Jessie looked at the photograph of the nine young people. For days she had believed she was uncovering an old crime. Something finished, something buried. But Vale hadn’t simply returned after twenty-four years. Maybe his work had never stopped.
“Why come back now?” Jessie asked.
“Because Vale is dying.”
Jessie remembered noticing his tremor, his breathing, the weight loss.
“And?”
“And someone is taking over.”
The words settled over the room.
“Michael?”
“I don’t know.”
“Candidate Ten?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then who?”
“That,” Evan said, “is why I need you tomorrow.”
Jessie stared at the phone. “You could have told me all of this without kidnapping people and terrorizing me.”
“I didn’t kidnap Emily.”
Jessie froze. “Or Mrs. Alvarez.”
Everyone froze and the air seemed to stand still. “Vale did.”
“Yes.”
“You were one of the men Emily saw.”
“Yes.”
“The younger one?”
“No.”
Jessie’s stomach dropped.
The older man with the accent Emily couldn’t place.
“Mercer wasn’t supposed to come back,” Jessie said.
Evan went silent.
“You said that.”
“Yes.”
“Who were you talking about?”
Evan’s answer changed everything. “Not Michael.”
Jessie gripped the phone. “Daniel?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
“You’re still assuming Mercer is a surname.” Jessie stared at Anna.
Anna looked confused. Gabriel looked equally lost. “What is it?”
Evan’s voice became quiet. “A designation.”
Jessie felt cold. “Meaning?”
“Vale didn’t call the replacement subjects candidates.” Jessie waited.
“He called them Mercers.”
“Why?”
“Because Michael was the first.”
Jessie finally understood Nathan’s warning differently.
DON’T TRUST MICHAEL MERCER.
Maybe Nathan hadn’t been identifying a man, maybe he’d been identifying what Michael was. Jessie looked at Anna’s notebook.
M.M. remains the control.
Michael Mercer or Michael, Mercer. A name that might have become something else entirely.
“Evan,” Jessie said, “how many Mercers were there?”
His answer came after a long silence.
“At least twelve.”
Jessie’s chest tightened. “And one came back.”
“Yes.”
“Which one?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then what do you know?”
“I know Vale was afraid.”
This mattered because Vale, who treated people like variables and pain like data, was afraid.
“Of what?”
“Of the first Mercer who learned what he really was.”
Jessie looked at Gabriel, then Anna.
“Michael.”
“Yes.”
Jessie closed her eyes. Everything kept returning to Daniel’s brother.
“What does Michael want?”
Evan’s answer came quietly. “The same thing you wanted when you were nineteen.”
Jessie opened her eyes. “And that is?”
“To destroy everything Vale built.”
That should have been reassuring, but it wasn’t.
“Then why shouldn’t I trust him?”
“Because Michael doesn’t care who gets destroyed with it.”
Jessie thought of Emily, Mrs. Alvarez & Nathan. They were all collateral.
There it was again, Vale treated people as experiments. Criminals treated them as collateral and perhaps Michael treated them as acceptable losses. Different language, same graves.
Jessie looked at the photograph one last time.
“Tomorrow. Eleven.”
“Yes.”
“I’m bringing Anna.”
“I know.”
“And Gabriel.”
Silence.
“I told you not to.”
“I know.”
“You haven’t changed as much as you think.”
Jessie almost smiled. “Maybe not.”
She looked at Gabriel, the man who had shot Daniel and then spent twenty-four years trying to keep a promise to him. She looked at Anna, the woman Jessie once hated because Anna had tried to save her. Then she looked at Evan’s seventeen-year-old face.
“But I’m not coming alone.”
Evan sighed. “I knew you’d say that.”
“Then why bother telling me not to?”
“Because I wanted to know whether you’d obey.”
Jessie smiled without humour.
“And?”
“You didn’t.”
“Disappointed?”
For the first time, Evan laughed. It wasn’t cruel, but it did sound strangely familiar.
“No,” he said. “Relieved.”
The call ended. Jessie kept holding the phone when Anna finally spoke.
“What now?”
Jessie looked at the clock. They had twenty-two hours before the meeting. Twenty-two hours to find out what a Mercer was, what Michael had become, whether Candidate Ten had survived, and why Nathan had risked his life to put Jessie back on a path she’d once begged to forget.
Jessie stood.
“Now we stop following Evan’s trail.”
Gabriel frowned. “And do what?”
“We follow Nathan’s.”
“The man is still in the hospital.”
“Yes.”
“And the police aren’t letting you question him.”
Jessie picked up her coat.
“I don’t need to question him.”
Anna stared at her. “What are you planning?”
Jessie paused.
For twenty-two years, that question had usually been followed by something illegal. Old instincts whispered possibilities immediately. Fake credentials. Manipulation. Breaking into records. Finding someone weak enough to pressure.
But Jessie ignored all of them. “I am going to ask the detective whether Nathan left anything else for Emily.”
Gabriel blinked.
Anna stared.
Jessie frowned. “What?”
Gabriel smiled. “Nothing.”
“Again with the face.”
“What face?”
“The proud face.”
“I don’t have a proud face.”
“You absolutely do.”
Anna picked up her coat. “I’m coming.”
Jessie looked at her. “Why?”
“Because if there were people after us, there may be people after Nathan.”
Gabriel stood too. “And apparently we’re doing things together now.”
Jessie sighed. “This is why I worked alone.”
“No,” Gabriel said. “You worked alone because you were emotionally constipated.”
Jessie stared at him as Anna opened the apartment door.
“He’s not wrong.”
“I liked both of you better when you were mysterious.”
They stepped into the hallway together.
Jessie had spent most of her life believing survival meant needing nobody. Vale had encouraged thata and so had the criminal world. Isolation made people easier to control because every decision became a private argument between fear and instinct. But Daniel had taught her something different. Evan had too, though neither of them had understood it at the time.
People could hurt you because you trusted them. They could betray you, lie to you, manipulate you, shoot someone you loved, leave you behind and sometimes they could still be worth trusting again. Not blindly, not without consequences but deliberately.
Jessie reached the stairs and stopped. There was something was sitting on the top step. It was a small brown envelope with her name was written across it. It wasn’t Vale’s, Nathan’s or Evan’s handwriting but Jessie still knew the handwriting anyway. She had seen it in old birthday cards Gabriel had once shown her. It was Daniel’s.
Nobody touched the envelope.
Gabriel whispered, “That’s impossible.”
Jessie stared at it. Daniel had been dead for twenty-four years. The hallway had been empty minutes earlier, yet someone had placed an envelope outside Anna’s apartment in his handwriting. Jessie crouched without picking it up.
Below her name were five words: YOU FORGOT WHAT YOU PROMISED.
And beneath them, smaller: ASK ANNA ABOUT CANDIDATE TEN.
Jessie slowly lifted her eyes. Anna had stopped breathing. For the first time since Jessie had met her, Candidate One looked like she wanted to run.
Jessie stood. “You know who she is.”
Anna said nothing.
Jessie’s anger rose, but this time something else rose with it. Understanding.
Anna wasn’t silent because she wanted power, she was terrified.
Jessie softened her voice. “Anna.”
The older woman looked at her. “Who was Candidate Ten?”
Anna’s eyes filled with tears. When she finally answered, her voice was barely audible. “There was no Candidate Ten.”
Jessie frowned. “But Evan—”
“Evan never knew.”
“Knew what?”
Anna looked at the envelope in Daniel’s handwriting and then she looked at Jessie.
“Vale didn’t choose another teenager after you.”
Jessie waited.
“He chose a child.” The hallway seemed to narrow around them.
“How old?”
Anna closed her eyes.
“Eight.”
Jessie felt sick.
“Who?”
Anna opened her eyes.
“The daughter Gabriel thinks has been safe for the last twenty-four years.”
Come back tomorrow for the next part.
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