Chapter 16 - Ronan Cain's Dead SisterHer name was Maeve Cain.
Ronan had been told she drowned at seventeen.
Elias had been thirteen.
Ronan had been nineteen.
There had been no body.
Only a wrecked car beside the river.
Eleanor had spent twenty years believing her daughter was dead.
Then Maeve walked through Raven Hill's front door.
No weapon.
No guards.
Just a black coat and the same gray-green Cain eyes.
Eleanor saw her first.
The sound that came from the old woman was not a word.
It was a mother's grief reversing itself.
“Maeve?”
Ronan appeared on the staircase.
He stopped.
Sadie had never seen him look frightened by another human being.
His sister smiled.
“Hello, Ro.”
Ronan descended slowly.
“You're dead.”
“I've heard.”
Eleanor slapped her.
The sound echoed.
Maeve accepted it.
Then Eleanor pulled her into an embrace.
Twenty years of grief collapsed into one moment.
Ronan did not move.
“Where were you?”
Maeve looked at him.
“Inside the Crown.”
Silence.
She had discovered their father's secret network as a teenager.
Declan feared she would expose it.
So he staged her death and sent her abroad under Daniel Hawthorne's protection.
Later, Maeve infiltrated the organization.
For two decades she had worked from within.
“Charles works for you?” Ronan asked.
“No.”
“Then why were you with him?”
Maeve's expression darkened.
“Because he thinks I work for him.”
Sadie crossed her arms.
“And we're supposed to trust that?”
Maeve looked at her.
“You're Sadie.”
“Yes.”
“Elias loved you.”
Sadie's defenses shifted.
“You knew?”
“He wrote to me once.”
Maeve's eyes filled.
“He told me he'd met a woman who made him want a boring life.”
Sadie laughed despite the ache.
“That sounds like him.”
Maeve looked at Poppy.
“And that's his little girl.”
Poppy stared back.
“Are you my aunt?”
Maeve smiled.
“Yes.”
“How many secret relatives do I have?”
Ronan muttered, “At this point, I am afraid to answer.”
Maeve laughed.
It sounded exactly like Elias.
That was what finally broke Ronan.
He turned away.
Maeve approached him.
“Ro.”
“Don't.”
“I couldn't come back.”
“You could have told me.”
“No.”
“Twenty years.”
“If the Crown knew you were communicating with me, you would have become leverage.”
“I was already leverage!”
His voice shook the room.
Poppy flinched.
Ronan immediately lowered it.
Maeve looked at him.
“I know.”
He stared at her.
Then his sister said the only words capable of reaching him.
“I was trying to protect you.”
Ronan laughed bitterly.
“Apparently that's the Cain family disease.”
Sadie touched his arm.
Maeve had returned because Charles was preparing to flee the country.
But before he did, he planned to destroy every surviving Crown record.
Including Greyhaven.
Including Daniel.
Including Maeve.
And including Poppy.
“Why Poppy?”
“Because Elias built something into the Crown database.”
Maeve looked at Sadie.
“A dead-man switch.”
If Elias died, access to the master archive would eventually transfer to his legal heir.
Poppy.
The system had been dormant because nobody had confirmed her identity.
The moment the Greyhaven birth certificate entered federal evidence, the archive recognized her.
Somewhere, a countdown had begun.
“When does it unlock?” Ronan asked.
Maeve answered.
“Poppy's eighth birthday.”
Sadie went pale.
Poppy looked delighted.
“My birthday is in twelve days.”
Nobody else shared her enthusiasm.
Then every phone in Raven Hill vibrated.
A message appeared.
12 DAYS.
Underneath:
BRING US THE GIRL, AND THE REST OF YOU LIVE.
Ronan deleted it.
Maeve looked at him.
“What are you doing?”
“Answering.”
“You deleted it.”
“Exactly.”
Poppy tugged his sleeve.
“What are we doing for my birthday?”
Everyone stared at her.
“What?”
Ronan crouched.
“What do you want?”
“A pony.”
Sadie immediately said, “No.”
Ronan said, “Done.”
Sadie stared.
“Ronan.”
“What?”
“We are under threat from an international criminal network and your response is to buy a horse?”
“A small horse.”
“That is called a pony.”
“I know.”
Poppy grinned.
Maeve looked at Eleanor.
“Is he always like this?”
Eleanor whispered:
May you like
“Worse.”
And for the first time in twenty years, both Cain sisters laughed together.
Related Stories
