Chapter 13 - WHAT DELIA REMEMBERED
Delia arrived before sunrise.
When she saw Ewan, she stopped in the doorway.
Neither moved.
Six years disappeared in the space between them.
Then Ewan tried to stand.
Delia ran to him.
He nearly fell.
She caught him.
They held each other without speaking.
No dramatic speech could have done what that silence did.
Ewan pressed his forehead against hers.
Delia whispered his name again and again.
I looked away.
Some reunions did not belong to witnesses.
Later, when everyone had settled, Delia told us what she remembered about the night of the fire.
Ewan had called her at 11:06 p.m.
He said he was inside Pier 44.
He said Celeste Vandermark had arrived with two men.
At the time, Delia barely knew who Celeste was.
Their families attended the same charity dinners.
That was all.
Then Ewan heard someone locking doors.
Minutes later smoke filled the warehouse.
“He told me to call your mother,” Delia said.
“Not my father?”
“No.”
That hurt for reasons I didn’t want to examine.
“He already knew Antonio was involved.”
Ewan nodded.
Delia continued.
“He escaped through a storm channel.”
“And Celeste saw him?”
Ewan tapped the board.
Y.
E.
S.
“What happened?”
He pointed to the scar on his throat.
Sofia answered softly.
“Victor found him behind the warehouse.”
Vincent stiffened.
“My brother did that?”
Ewan nodded.
Victor had struck him in the throat with a metal bar when he attempted to crawl away.
He believed Ewan died.
Then Vincent arrived.
The two brothers fought.
Victor fled.
Vincent got Ewan to my mother.
Everything after that was concealment.
New records.
Private doctors.
False death certificates.
A sealed coffin.
My mother had attended her own son’s funeral knowing he was alive in another building.
I finally understood the expression I remembered on her face that day.
It hadn’t been grief alone.
It had been terror.
Delia reached across the table and took Ewan’s hand.
“Why didn’t you come back for me?”
His face crumpled.
He tapped slowly.
D.
A.
N.
G.
E.
R.
Then:
B.
A.
B.
Y.
The room went silent.
I looked at Delia.
She closed her eyes.
There was another secret.
“You were pregnant.”
She nodded.
“What happened?”
“I lost the baby three months later.”
Ewan’s head snapped toward her.
She had never told him.
His fingers tightened around hers.
“I’m sorry.”
Delia’s voice broke.
“I thought you were dead.”
Ewan lowered his forehead to her hand.
I stood and walked toward the window.
Suddenly the revenge I had imagined against Leonard felt too small.
Too primitive.
Death would take one moment from him.
I wanted something slower.
I wanted him to watch every lie become evidence.
Every ally become a witness.
Every account freeze.
Every door close.
I turned back.
“The wedding happens tomorrow.”
Delia stared at me.
“After all this?”
“Especially after all this.”
Sofia smiled slightly.
“You have a plan.”
“Yes.”
“Does it end with Celeste dead?”
“No.”
That surprised everyone.
“It ends with Celeste alive.”
I looked at Ewan.
May you like
“And answering questions.”
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