Chapter 16: The Bracelet

She stood on the other side of the iron gate with her hands folded around the envelope.

She did not take off her sunglasses.

"Louis," she said. "I'm not here for Gordon."

Lou climbed the gate again, slower this time, and stood in front of her on the sidewalk.

I came over the top after him and landed beside him.

"You have two minutes," Lou said.

"I won't need that long."

She took off the sunglasses.

Her eyes were red, and she looked ten years older than she had in the drawing room.

"I was under anesthesia when she was born," she said. "My baby. The one I carried."

She stopped, and swallowed.

"When I woke up, Gordon was sitting by the bed holding a little girl in a blanket."

She pressed her lips together.

"He said the doctors had been wrong, and that she had lived."

Her voice stayed level, but her hands were not steady.

"I was so happy I didn't ask him anything. For five years I never asked."

"And then?" I said.

"Then I found this in the pocket of his old coat."

She held out the envelope.

I opened it with shaking fingers.

Inside was a hospital bracelet, the thin white kind, soft with age.

It was too small for any wrist but a newborn's.

It said BOYLE, FEMALE, and a date, and a time, 2:10 a.m.

Lou made a sound in his throat, and took it from me, and held it in his palm.

Keep reading free with an account. Start Revealing My Secret Identities! My Bros Are Speechless! from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.