Chapter 2 - The Housekeeper Showed Me Her Real Name, Then Begged Me Never to Trust Gabriel’s Brother
The housekeeper pulled off her gray wig.
Dark hair spilled over her shoulders.
“My name is Mara Quinn.”
I recognized her immediately.
The missing nurse's photograph had circulated for months.
Her mother had appeared on local television.
The police had called her disappearance voluntary.
“Your mother thinks you're dead,” I said.
Mara looked away.
“I know.”
Gabriel moaned on the bed.
I checked his breathing.
His skin was cold.
“We need a hospital.”
“Not the one Vincent owns,” Mara replied.
The elevator shuddered to a stop.
We emerged into a laundry corridor.
Lucas checked the stairwell.
Mara caught my arm.
“He's the reason I disappeared.”
She meant Lucas.
He heard her.
“I got you out,” he said.
“You locked me in a basement first.”
I looked between them.
Neither denied it.
Lucas opened his mouth.
A gunshot cracked upstairs.
The sound carried through the vents.
Mara flinched.
“They've found the empty room.”
We pushed Gabriel through a loading dock.
Rain hammered the pavement.
A delivery van waited with its engine running.
The driver opened the rear doors.
Mara helped me secure Gabriel inside.
Lucas climbed into the front.
I pressed gauze against Gabriel's wound.
“Tell me the truth,” I demanded.
Mara knelt beside me.
“I discovered forged medical records.”
“For Gabriel?”
“For dozens of people.”
She showed me a notebook.
Each page carried a name and date.
Some names were crossed out.
At the bottom sat one familiar name.
Evelyn Hayes.
Mine.
My breath caught.
“I've never treated these people.”
“Your credentials have,” Mara said.
The van stopped abruptly.
Through the windshield, blue lights flashed.
Two police cruisers blocked the road.
A man stepped out holding a photograph.
It was my nursing license.
May you like
“Evelyn Hayes,” he shouted.
“You're under arrest for murder.”
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