Novels by Catherine Ellsworth

"Everyone stay calm!" a security guard shouted. "Check the exits! Check the restrooms!"The ballroom exploded into noise. Chairs scraped. Women gasped. Julian was already running, his tuxedo jacket flying, shouting my son's name across the room.For one terrible second, I could not move.Milo is six. Milo is small. Milo is out there in a hotel with three hundred strangers.Then Adrian's hand closed around my arm."Lena. Think."I looked at him. His eyes were steady. I held onto them like a rope."Where would he go?" Adrian asked quietly. "When he's scared. Where does he hide?"My mind went through the doors. The restrooms. The lobby. The elevators.Then I remembered.Every party. Every family dinner. Every single time the room got too loud, Milo vanished."Dessert table," I whispered. "Under the tablecloth. He always hides where it's quiet and he can still smell the cake.""Go."I picked up my skirt and ran.The dessert room was a quiet side hall off the ballroom. A long white table s

"Say something," I whispered. "You're making me nervous."Adrian stood in the hotel lobby in a black tuxedo, looking at me as though I were a building he had been trying to understand for seven years."I can't," he said at last. "I've lost the words."I looked down at myself. The dress was midnight blue, with a low back and a skirt that moved like water. He had found it in a small boutique that same afternoon and refused to tell me how much it cost."It's the same color," I said quietly. "As the night I won the award.""I know." His voice was rough. "I remembered."My heart did something it had no right to do.I took his arm. "Let's go be dangerous."The ballroom glittered. Chandeliers, champagne towers, a string quartet on a raised stage. Three hundred of the city's richest people turned as one when we walked in. I felt their eyes, curious and hungry. Cole and Blake's amnesiac friend. Together. How interesting.Cameras flashed."Mr. Cole! Is it true you're sponsoring the Harborline c

"You came alone," Julian said."Should I have brought someone?"He gave a tight smile. "I thought Cole might insist on coming.""He offered." I shrugged. "I told him I could handle one conversation."Which was true. Adrian was parked two streets away, with my phone on his lap and one word ready on his tongue. Pineapple.Julian had chosen the Harborline site for our meeting. It was a wide stretch of empty concrete beside the water, with cranes sleeping against the grey sky and a huge white tent set up for the press. The wind smelled of salt and diesel. Inside the tent stood a scale model of a waterfront district under glass."I owe you an apology," Julian said, and stopped.I waited.He pushed a hand through his hair. It was a gesture I had loved for years. "About last night. The bisque. The way I spoke. I'm sorry you had to see that.""Is that what you wanted to tell me? About the ring?""The ring." His eyes slid away. "It belonged to my grandmother. It has been in the family a long t

"What are you looking at?" Julian asked.His voice was very quiet. That was how I knew he was afraid.I had one second. One second to decide whether to scream the truth in his face or play the part I had been given.I chose the part."The ring," I said, and tilted my head. "It's strange. I feel like I've seen it in a dream. A woman, crying, with one just like it on her finger." I let out a small, embarrassed laugh. "I'm sorry. My head plays tricks."Something in his shoulders loosened. Barely."It's a family piece," he said. "Sasha has had it for years.""Of course."He studied me for a long, long moment. I did not look away. I let my eyes stay soft and confused, like a child's.At last, he nodded."Milo's waiting."Milo sat on his bed in dinosaur pajamas, his knees pulled up to his chin. When I bent to say goodnight, I put my lips next to his ear."I'll see you soon," I whispered, so low only he could hear. "I promise."His small hand curled around my sleeve.He did not say a word. H

"Go on," Sasha whispered. "Take a bite."The spoon hovered an inch from my lips.She was smiling. She was waiting. If I ate, I might die. If I refused, I would prove I remembered.So I did the only thing a woman with no memory could do.I leaned down and smelled the bisque. Then I frowned, set the spoon down gently, and pressed my hand against my throat."That's strange," I said slowly."What is?" Sasha's voice sharpened."My body doesn't want it." I looked up, wide-eyed and puzzled. "My stomach just turned over. And my throat feels tight, like it already knows something. Is that normal after a head injury?"The table went silent."Lena," Julian said hoarsely, "don't touch that.""Why? Did something happen with shrimp?"Nobody answered. Julian had gone gray. Sasha's smile had begun to slide, one corner at a time."Julian?" I turned to him, all innocence. "Do I have an allergy?"He stared at me. Then he stood so fast his chair fell back."Take it away," he snapped at the maid. "Take al

"No," Adrian said."I'm going anyway.""Lena, it's a trap.""Of course it's a trap." I tucked the invitation into my bag. Julian had texted it in the morning: Dinner at home tonight. Milo has been asking for you. "But it's also the only way I'll see my son, and the only way I'll see what they've done to my house."He crossed his arms. His jaw worked. I knew that look now. It meant he wanted to argue and knew he would lose."Fine," he said at last. "But we need a signal.""A signal?""A word. If you say it, I come in and get you. No questions."I thought for a moment. "Pineapple."His mouth twitched. "Pineapple?""Nobody says pineapple by accident."He almost smiled. Then he stepped close and fixed my collar, his fingers brushing my neck, and the almost-smile disappeared."Come back to me," he said quietly.I wanted to say something clever. I could not find a single word.The house looked exactly as I had left it, and nothing like it at all.The gate opened. The white stone steps. The