Chapter 2: The Name Nobody Was Supposed to Hear
They caught the man before he reached the door.
Joseph's bodyguards brought him back.
He was shaking.
His phone was already in their hands.
Joseph looked at the photo on the screen.
Then at me.
"Do you know him?"
"No."
He handed the phone to his lieutenant without another word.
"Find out who sent him."
I grabbed Joseph's arm without thinking.
"What is this?
Who would want a photo of me?"
He looked down at my hand.
Then at my face.
"People who watch me.
People who look for anything they can use."
"I'm a waitress."
"Not anymore." His voice was quiet.
"The moment you said Rose Bennett's name, everything changed."
I didn't understand.
I didn't want to.
"I need to go home."
"Not alone."
"You don't get to decide that."
"Audrey." Something in his tone stopped me.
"There are people in this city who would hurt you simply to hurt me.
And they just got your face."
The room felt smaller.
His lieutenant returned.
He leaned close to Joseph and said two words I wasn't meant to hear.
But I heard them.
*Carbone's people.*
Joseph's jaw tightened in a way that told me that name meant something very bad.
He turned to me slowly.
"Does your mother ever talk about why she left Chicago?"
My throat tightened.
"She said she needed a fresh start."
Joseph said nothing.
But the look on his face told me that was not the whole truth.
---
May you like
What Rose has been hiding for twenty years is darker than Audrey ever imagined.
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