thundered on the stairs. The two men outside Maya’s door turned toward the chaos.
Celeste’s composure broke.
“Maya,” she snapped, no sweetness left. “Do not do something reckless with that child.”
Maya opened the bedroom window and lifted Nora onto the fire escape.
“Hold the rail. Don’t look down.”
The cold slapped them both. The metal stairs trembled beneath Maya’s bare feet as she climbed out after her daughter. Behind them, Celeste’s voice rose inside the apartment.
“She’s going out the window!”
Maya pushed Nora down the first ladder.
Halfway to the alley, Nora froze.
The man below stepped forward.
Maya pulled Nora behind her, one arm locked around the child’s waist.
The man lifted both hands slowly.
He was in his sixties, broad-shouldered, with a gray beard and a chauffeur’s cap pulled low. In one hand, he held a gold pocket watch.
Owen’s father’s watch.
Maya had seen it a hundred times when she and Owen were young. Owen wore it on their wedding day because his father had died before the ceremony. He used to wind it whenever he was nervous.
The man mouthed, Move.
Then Celeste leaned from Maya’s apartment window above and screamed, “Jonas, don’t you dare!”
The man’s face hardened.
He opened the rear door of the black car.
Inside, wrapped in a blanket, head tilted against the seat, was Owen.
Maya nearly lost her grip on the ladder.
Owen lifted his face with visible effort. His eyes found Nora first.
“Nora,” he breathed.
Nora did not move. Her little hand tightened around the stuffed rabbit.
Maya climbed down the last rungs and stepped between them.
“Don’t,” she warned him.
Owen’s expression folded with pain. “I know.”
Jonas shut the car door halfway, shielding Owen from the street. “We have minutes,” he said. “Maren’s men will be down here as soon as the stairwell clears.”
“Maren,” Maya repeated.
“That’s her name,” Jonas said. “At least one of them.”
Above, Celeste shouted orders. The hallway chaos had given them only a small opening.
“Why should I trust you?” Maya demanded.
Jonas glanced at Nora, then softened his voice. “Because when Mr. Kerr realized what she was, he tried to get out. I helped him hide the first records. I failed to get him away the first time. I won’t fail your child.”
Owen coughed into the blanket.
Maya heard footsteps pounding from inside the building.
“Get in,” Jonas said.
Maya wanted to run in the opposite direction. She wanted police, witnesses, daylight, a simple world where villains did not wear pearl earrings and stolen names. But Nora was shivering against her side, and Celeste’s men were about to come through the alley door.
Maya opened the car door and climbed in with Nora on her lap.
The car pulled away before the door fully closed.
Behind them, Celeste burst from the building. For one second, under the streetlamp, her calm mask was gone. Her mouth twisted with fury. She looked less like an heiress than a cornered animal.
Then the car turned the corner and she disappeared.
No one spoke for six blocks.
Nora stared at Owen.
Owen stared at his hands.
Maya held the stuffed rabbit so tightly the seam nearly tore wider.
Finally, she said, “Start talking.”
Owen nodded. His voice was weak, but
