CHAPTER4 — MARA
Chapter 04 - CHAPTER4 — MARA
Mara Bell had aged, but not enough to erase her.
Jodi knew her immediately.
The same silver hair. The same narrow face. The same pale blue eyes that had appeared beside her father in the photograph.
Mara walked toward them without an umbrella.
Hector's men moved between her and Jodi.
"Let her through," Jodi said.
Hector looked at her.
"You know her."
"She knew my father."
Mara stopped several feet away.
"Your father loved you."
Jodi felt tears rise.
"Then why did he leave me?"
Mara looked at Hector.
"Because he was trying to keep her alive."
Hector's voice was cold.
"Who are you?"
Mara ignored him.
"Jodi, you need to listen carefully."
"No."
Jodi stepped forward.
"Not another secret. Not another half-truth. Eight years. I spent eight years thinking my father abandoned me."
"He didn't."
"Then where is he?"
Mara hesitated.
"He's dead."
The words hit harder than Jodi expected.
Mara continued.
"He died three years ago."
Jodi stared at her.
"Then why did you just say he was alive?"
"Because the man you believed was your father is not the man who died."
Silence.
Hector's expression changed.
Mara looked at him.
"Your father was Daniel Russo."
Jodi nodded slowly.
"Yes."
"Daniel Russo died eight years ago."
Jodi shook her head.
"No."
Mara's eyes filled with sadness.
"The man who raised you was not Daniel Russo."
Jodi felt the world tilt.
She looked at Hector.
He was watching Mara with a strange intensity.
"You knew," Jodi whispered.
Hector didn't answer.
"You knew something about this."
"I knew there was a Daniel Russo."
"That's not what I asked."
Mara interrupted.
"Hector knew your father."
Jodi's stomach tightened.
"How?"
Mara looked between them.
"Because Daniel was the man who saved Hector's life."
Hector's jaw tightened.
"And the man who later tried to kill my father."
Jodi stared at him.
"What?"
Hector looked at Mara.
"You shouldn't have come here."
"I had no choice."
"You always have a choice."
Mara reached into her coat and removed a small photograph.
She handed it to Jodi.
Jodi looked down.
It was a picture of a young Hector.
Maybe twenty-five.
Beside him stood a man she recognized from childhood photographs.
Her father.
But there was something else.
A little girl stood between them.
Jodi.
She was about nine years old.
On the back, in her father's handwriting, were five words.
SHE MUST NEVER KNOW WHO SHE IS.
Jodi's hands began to shake.
"What does that mean?"
Mara looked at her.
"It means your father wasn't hiding you from Hector."
She glanced at Hector.
"He was hiding you from your mother."
Jodi stopped breathing.
"My mother is dead."
Mara's voice dropped.
"That is what your father wanted you to believe."
A car door slammed somewhere behind them.
Hector's men turned.
Mara suddenly grabbed Jodi.
"Run."
A gunshot cracked through the rain.
Mara fell.
And Jodi saw the shooter.
May you like
It was the man from the ballroom.
The waiter.
