Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 11 - Chapitre 20

Maya stared at Julian.“You knew.”She didn't raise her voice, but Julian heard the accusation clearly.He stood beside the window, one hand resting on the edge of the desk. The city lights flickered across the glass behind him, but he wasn't watching them. His attention was fixed on the brass key in Maya's hand.“I recognized it,” he said.“That isn't an answer.”“It’s the only one I can give you right now.”Maya looked down at the key.3-17.She turned it slowly between her fingers.Her father's handwritten note was still folded inside her pocket.He doesn't know.She had read those words so many times that she could almost hear her father's voice saying them.Who didn't know?Julian?Someone else?“You knew my father was hiding something,” she said.Julian didn't deny it.“I knew he was investigating something.”“What?”“I don't know.”Maya looked at him sharply.“You expect me to believe that?”“No.”His answer was so direct that she paused.Julian pushed away from the desk.“Know

Maya stared at Julian, waiting for him to say something—anything—that would make Whitfield's message mean something different.It didn't.The words remained on her phone, bright against the dim room.Whatever your mother left behind is already gone.Maya read them again, her thumb resting against the edge of the screen.Her mother.She lifted her eyes to Julian. “My mother.”His expression barely changed, but his jaw tightened.That tiny movement told Maya more than his carefully controlled face ever could. Julian had always been good at keeping his emotions buried, but she had started learning the small signs—the slight shift in his eyes, the tension around his mouth, the way he became unnaturally still when he was deciding how much truth to reveal.“You knew,” she said.“I knew there were things about your mother that didn't add up.”“That isn't what I asked.”“I know.”“Then answer me.”Maya stepped closer. “Is my mother alive?”For a fraction of a second, Julian hesitated.It was

Maya watched Julian from across the room.He had gone quiet again, but this wasn't the controlled silence she'd come to expect from him. He stood beside the window with one hand resting against the edge of the desk, his attention fixed on the city below.His shoulders were tense. His jaw tightened briefly before he forced it to relax.Maya noticed.Lately, she'd become far too good at noticing things about Julian—the small changes in his expression, the way his fingers moved when he was irritated, the way he avoided eye contact whenever a conversation came too close to something he didn't want to discuss."Julian."His gaze shifted toward her."What?""You know something."His mouth tightened. "I know a lot of things.""Don't do that."Her voice was sharper than she'd intended, but she didn't take it back."Every time you don't want to tell me something, you give me an answer like that and expect me to drop it.""Maya—""No."She crossed the room until only a few feet separated them.

Julian didn't answer.He stood with Maya's phone in his hand, his thumb moving slowly along the edge of the case as though the photograph on the screen might somehow change if he stared at it long enough. For once, he had no ready response.Maya watched him, waiting for the explanation she'd been demanding since that woman's voice had come through the phone.Her mother's voice.The thought still wouldn't settle. Every time Maya tried to accept it, another question pushed its way forward."Where did this come from?" Julian asked at last.A short, disbelieving laugh escaped her. "That's your first question?"His eyes lifted to hers. "Maya—""No." She took the phone back and pressed it against her chest, feeling her pulse against the glass. "You don't get to do that anymore. Every time I ask you something you don't want to answer, you ask me something else.""I'm trying to understand what I'm looking at.""You know exactly what you're looking at."She turned the screen toward him again.

The door opened another inch, and Julian moved before Maya could react.He shoved her behind him with one arm as a man stepped into the room. Marcus straightened against the wall, one hand disappearing beneath his jacket, while Julian positioned himself between the stranger and the two women.The man looked to be in his late fifties. His gray hair was combed neatly back, his dark overcoat fit perfectly, and his polished shoes looked absurdly clean in a building where every floor was coated with dust.Nothing about him suggested that he had just forced his way into an abandoned property with armed security waiting inside.He looked calm.Almost bored.His gaze passed over Marcus, settled briefly on Julian, then moved to Evelyn.“Mrs. Reed.”Evelyn's fingers tightened around the gun beneath her coat.“You shouldn't have found me.”A faint smile touched his mouth. “You've been saying that for eighteen years.”Maya's stomach tightened. She looked at her mother, but Evelyn refused to meet