He looked less like the man people whispered about.
More like a father who had not slept.
Claire reached toward the nurse call button.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“I know.”
“That doesn’t make me feel better.”
“I came to thank you.”
Claire stared.
“For what?”
“My daughter is alive because of you.”
“I saw a child.”
“You ran toward gunfire.”
“I wasn’t thinking.”
“I was.”
Claire looked away.
Adrian’s voice lowered.
“You saved the only person in this world I could not survive losing.”
Claire did not know what to do with that sentence.
Adrian placed a cream envelope on the table.
Claire looked at it.
“No.”
“You don’t know what it is.”
“Money.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
His brow lifted.
“You refuse quickly.”
“I didn’t save Sofia because I wanted a reward.”
“It isn’t payment.”
“Then what?”
“Gratitude.”
Claire looked toward the envelope.
“Your gratitude shouldn’t have numbers on it.”
For a moment, Adrian said nothing.
Then a faint smile appeared.
“Rachel used to say things like that.”
Claire’s expression hardened.
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Use my mother to make me trust you.”
The smile disappeared.
“That wasn’t my intention.”
“I don’t know you well enough to know your intentions.”
Adrian nodded.
“Fair.”
That word again.
Claire studied him.
She had expected arrogance.
Threats.
Possessiveness.
Instead, Adrian Bellini seemed almost careful around her.
That somehow made him more unsettling.
He reached into his shirt pocket.
Claire froze when he opened his hand.
Another silver pendant lay across his palm.
Half a circle.
A small moon engraved into the metal.
Claire touched the star at her throat.
Adrian stepped closer.
“May I?”
Claire hesitated.
Then nodded.
He held his half beside hers.
The broken edges fit perfectly.
A complete circle.
Star and moon.
Claire stared.
Adrian turned the pieces over.
Letters had been engraved along the back.
Claire had seen three letters on her pendant her entire life.
BEL.
Adrian’s half completed them.
LINI.
BELLINI.
Claire stared at the word.
“No.”
Adrian withdrew his hand.
Claire shook her head.
“My mother’s surname was Bennett.”
“Maybe eventually.”
“No.”
“She could have changed it.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
Claire’s eyes filled unexpectedly.
“She never lied to me.”
“I didn’t say she did.”
“You’re saying her entire identity was false.”
“I’m saying part of her life may have existed before you.”
Claire looked away.
Adrian said nothing for nearly a minute.
Then he took out his phone.
“There’s another reason I’m here.”
Claire sighed.
“I’m developing a hatred for that sentence.”
Adrian showed her the screen.
A surveillance photograph.
Claire leaving Bellini’s Cafe six days earlier.
Her face had been circled in red.
Three words were handwritten beneath the image.
RACHEL’S DAUGHTER CONFIRMED.