Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN THEY SPOKE FOR
Vincent cleared the restaurant in four minutes.
Customers were escorted out.
Phones disappeared into pockets.
Nora stood beside the booth wondering whether she had just made the worst decision of her life.
Evelyn kept hold of her hand.
"You're staying."
It did not sound like a request.
The older woman signed.
Please.
Marcus Reed stood across the table.
Twenty years of loyalty sat on his face like armor.
Vincent spoke softly.
"Did you know my mother could sign?"
"Some."
"Some?"
"She used signs after the blast. Doctors said they were repetitive behaviors."
"No. They're ASL."
"Why didn't you ever tell me?"
Evelyn stared at him with a pain so sharp Nora almost looked away.
I tried.
Every day.
That hurt him more than accusation.
He had spent twenty years believing his mother lived behind a wall.
Now he was learning she had been knocking from the other side.
Evelyn signed that after the explosion, she woke in a private clinic.
Her hearing was gone.
Her throat was injured from smoke inhalation.
She could still think.
A rehabilitation specialist began teaching her sign language.
Three weeks later, the woman vanished.
"What was her name?" Vincent asked.
Evelyn spelled it.
M-A-R-A V-E-L-E-Z.
Marcus went pale.
So did Vincent.
"You know that name."
Marcus said, "She was a therapist."
"What happened to her?"
"She left."
Evelyn slammed her fist on the table.
No.
Killed.
Silence.
"Who killed her?"
Then the lights went out.
The restaurant dropped into darkness.
A man shouted.
Evelyn pulled Nora down.
A gunshot cracked near the kitchen.
Vincent yelled, "Mom!"
Emergency lights flashed red.
Marcus was gone.
And on the table where he had been standing sat Evelyn's photograph.
Turned over.
May you like
A new message had been written beneath the old one.
SHE SHOULD HAVE STAYED SILENT.
