Chapter Two The Name Beneath Her Own #2
The man she thought had accidentally entered her life.
He had possessed Amara’s pendant.
Which meant he had known exactly who Naomi was from the first day she entered his classroom.
Naomi looked toward Lucas.
“He watched me grow up.”
“Not exactly,” Evelyn said.
Naomi turned.
“He became your professor because Joseph asked him to.”
“You told me that yesterday.”
“Yes.”
“But after Joseph died, Mercer remained.”
“Because he believed Elias would eventually come for you.”
“Was he protecting me?”
“I thought he was.”
Naomi laughed bitterly.
“Everyone protecting me seems to steal something.”
Evelyn had no defense.
Commander Ross picked up the inverted pendant using gloves.
“We need to determine whether Mercer left this or whether someone took it from him.”
Anthony entered from the study.
“We may already have an answer.”
Everyone looked toward him.
He carried a tablet.
“A camera on a neighboring building caught the balcony at 3:12.”
Lucas stepped closer.
“We were told the person disappeared.”
“They did.”
Anthony enlarged the footage.
The image was grainy.
A figure dressed in black stood near the exterior maintenance rail. Hood up. Face obscured.
But one detail remained visible.
A hand.
A woman’s hand.
A distinctive ring.
Evelyn gasped.
Naomi looked at her.
“What?”
Her mother stared at the screen.
“That ring belonged to Amara.”
Naomi’s pulse accelerated.
“What are you saying?”
“That’s impossible.”
“Mom.”
“I buried her wearing it.”
The room became silent.
Commander Ross immediately asked,
“Did you see the body?”
Evelyn froze.
Naomi understood before anyone said it.
“No.”
Evelyn’s eyes widened.
“No.”
“Mom.”
“They wouldn’t let me.”
“Who?”
“Elias.”
Naomi stared.
“You let Elias handle the burial?”
“We had no choice. Joseph was injured. I was hiding you. Amara had died in a private clinic controlled by Covenant people.”
Ross’s voice hardened.
“You never independently confirmed her death.”
Evelyn slowly sat down.
“No.”
Naomi felt the air disappear from her lungs.
Lucas caught her hand.
She looked toward the balcony footage.
The woman’s face remained hidden.
The ring.
The pendant.
The timing.
Thirty years of lies suddenly rearranged themselves.
Naomi whispered,
“My mother may be alive.”
The first DNA test was ordered before noon.
Old hospital samples connected to Amara were almost impossible to locate, but Evelyn had preserved something no one expected.
A lock of hair.
Naomi stared at her when she brought out the small envelope.
“You kept her hair?”
Evelyn smiled through tears.
“She was your mother.”
“I thought you wanted me to believe you were.”
“I wanted you to believe you were loved.”
“That is not the same.”
“No.”
Evelyn accepted the rebuke.
“She gave this to Joseph before you were born.”
Naomi looked at the curl through the plastic sleeve.
Dark.
Thick.
Almost the same texture as hers.
Lucas stood behind her.
“You don’t have to do this today.”
“Yes, I do.”
“If the result confirms it, nothing about how Joseph loved you changes.”
“I know.”
“If it opens more questions—”
“It will.”
She turned toward him.
“That is the only thing in this family I’m absolutely certain of.”
Lucas smiled faintly.
“Fair.”
Commander Ross arranged expedited testing through a forensic laboratory.
Results would take hours.
Not days.
In the meantime, they began rebuilding Amara’s life from fragments.
Photographs.
Covenant files.
University records.
Travel manifests.
She had studied archaeology.
Spoke four languages.
Worked in Spain, Morocco, and Colombia.
She had entered the Bluebird at nineteen.
And according to one surviving report, she had specialized in moving women and children away from trafficking routes controlled by men who later became part of Serrano’s organization.
Naomi stared at one photograph.
Amara stood outside a refugee center holding a little girl’s hand.
She was beautiful.
Not glamorous.
Strong.
Wide smile.
Dark curls.
Full figure.
Naomi touched the screen.
“She looks like me.”
Evelyn sat beside her.
“You look very much like her.”
“Why did you never tell me?”
“Because Joseph believed knowing could place you in danger.”
“That answer is becoming less acceptable every time I hear it.”
“I know.”
Naomi looked toward her.
“Did you love her?”
Evelyn’s eyes filled.
“Yes.”
“Like family?”
“Like a sister.”
Naomi’s anger softened despite herself.
“You lost her too.”
“Yes.”
“Then took her baby.”
“She placed you in my arms.”
Naomi went still.
“What?”
Evelyn smiled through tears.
“She was alive when I first held you.”
“You said she died after childbirth.”
“She did.”
“But she gave me to you herself.”
“Yes.”
Naomi’s voice became almost inaudible.
“What did she say?”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“She said, ‘If I don’t leave this room, make sure my daughter grows up believing she belongs to herself.’”
Naomi covered her mouth.
Lucas moved beside her.
Evelyn continued.
“She told me not to let Elias turn you into an heir.”
“An heir to what?”
“The Bluebird.”
Naomi looked toward the Covenant documents.
“Dad eventually chose me anyway.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Joseph believed Amara feared the institution as it existed under Elias.”
Evelyn reached for her hand.
“He believed you could become something different.”
Naomi looked at her mother.
“My entire life was preparation for a role no one bothered to ask whether I wanted.”
“Yes.”
Naomi pulled her hand away.
“Then everyone failed her.”
Evelyn lowered her eyes.
“I know.”
At four seventeen, the laboratory called.
Commander Ross took the report.
Naomi stood beside Lucas near the windows.
Her heart pounded so hard she could hear it.
Ross looked toward her.
“The sample is maternally related.”
Naomi swallowed.
“How certain?”
“Ninety-nine point nine percent.”
Amara was her biological mother.
The fact should have felt grounding.
Instead, it opened another hole.
“Can the DNA tell us whether she’s alive?”
“No.”
Of course not.
Anthony entered with another report.
“We may have something better.”
He projected a financial record onto the screen.
A woman named Mara Ellis had rented a London storage unit for twenty-two years.
Cash payments.
No digital billing.
The identity appeared false.
But the original application contained fingerprints.