Chapter 17 - My Mother Took My Baby
I had imagined finding my mother alive.
I had not imagined finding her in an abandoned church basement holding my daughter.
Fern was asleep against her chest.
Rose looked older.
Thinner.
Her hair was almost completely gray.
But she was my mother.
I knew her before my brain did.
My body moved.
I crossed the room and took Fern from her.
Then I slapped Rose.
Hard.
She did not stop me.
“You took my baby.”
“Yes.”
“You faked your death.”
“Yes.”
“You watched me struggle for five years.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“Yes.”
“Stop saying yes.”
“I don’t know what else I’m allowed to say.”
“Nothing. Start with nothing.”
Stellan stood several feet away with Darius and two guards.
He did not interrupt.
Rose looked at Fern.
“I knew Northstar had found the mansion.”
“You could have called.”
“They were monitoring Stellan’s security network.”
“Then how did you get in?”
Mrs. Thornbury stepped from the shadows.
I stared at her.
“Of course.”
She looked ashamed.
Rose said, “Agnes helped me build the old escape routes.”
“Everyone in my life has a secret tunnel except me.”
Darius almost smiled.
I did not.
Stellan asked, “Who is Northstar?”
Rose’s expression hardened.
“Not one person. A coalition. Corporate security, private intelligence, old money. They buy unstable organizations, clean the visible crime, keep the profitable infrastructure.”
Roman had been right.
They planned to replace the Cross family, not destroy it.
“Why target Selene at the gala?” Stellan asked.
“Because I put evidence in her pendant.”
I stared at my mother.
“You used me as a courier without telling me.”
“I thought ignorance made you safer.”
I laughed bitterly.
“You and everyone else.”
Rose flinched.
Good.
“Why fake Ava’s death?” Stellan asked.
“I didn’t.”
The room went silent.
“I created the temporary identity with Vivienne and Agnes. I closed it before sunrise.”
“Then who reopened it?”
“Northstar.”
“How?”
“They had someone inside Mercer’s lab and someone inside Gideon’s legal office.”
Roman.
Or someone under Roman.
Stellan asked, “Who?”
Rose looked at me instead.
“There’s one part Selene needs to hear first.”
I tightened my hold on Fern.
“What?”
“The car accident that supposedly killed me was real.”
I stopped.
“I was inside the car.”
My anger shifted.
“How did you survive?”
“Roman pulled me out before it burned.”
Stellan’s face changed.
“Roman saved you?”
“Yes.”
“Then why hide from him?”
“I didn’t. He has been helping me for five years.”
That meant Roman’s suspicious money transfers were not proof he was the enemy.
They were funding Rose’s network.
Stellan frowned.
“Then who poisoned my father today?”
Rose went pale.
“I don’t know.”
Darius’s phone rang.
He answered.
His face changed.
“Sir.”
“What?”
“Roman Cross was just found dead in his car.”
Rose made a sound like something inside her had broken.
Darius continued.
“And the police already have a suspect.”
Stellan’s eyes narrowed.
“Who?”
Darius looked at Selene.
“Mrs. Thornbury.”
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