Page 49 of Slayer

He nodded. “Molly felt the same way, and it was only five million when she inherited it. Nevertheless, I am legally bound to give it to you, along with the letters inside the packet, which have been sealed for almost nineteen years.”

Almost nineteen years… “When did Molly go missing?” I asked, picking up my chair and sitting back down at the desk.

She had gone missing, right? Wasn’t that what I’d heard?

“To everyone else here, about twenty years ago. But to me, it’s been almost nineteen. She must have known she was pregnant with you. She came back late one night and knocked on my front door. Said she had updated her will and needed me to file it. I urged her to stay and work out whatever issues had made her run away, but she ignored my pleas and was adamant she needed to leave quickly and couldn’t stay here in Veil Haven.” He stood. “She made me swear not to tell anyone I’d seen her, so I haven’t. I’ll leave you to look over that privately, and please let me know if there is anything else I can help with. It was nice to meet you, Stella.” He stood, tapping the envelope.

I swallowed hard, nodding.

Celia said my mother had been missing almost twenty years, dead for eighteen, but to him, it was nineteen since she’d been gone. Nothing added up. That meant she’d gone somewhere for a year or two. But where? And why?

When the door clicked shut behind him, I peeled off the tape sealing the envelope. My heart thumped in my chest as I prepared for something crazy. A deed to a haunted house? A key to a safe-deposit box with bones in it? A letter telling me I shouldn’t trust anyone here and needed to leave the country? I felt sick going over every option. I’d seen way too many mystery movies for this moment. My mind was running wild.

There was a packet of papers and a shiny modern key. The key was to a storage unit with an address attached, and the papers were for a bank account in New York City, along with a printed and signed will saying it was all left to Molly’s heir, me, and two smaller envelopes. One was labeled,

My beloved sister Celia

and the other

My beloved child.

A sob startled me by coming up out of my throat.

My beloved child.

I’d lived eighteen years, and no one had ever said that to me. My hands shook as I tore open the envelope.

Hi little one,

Well, I guess when you read this, you won’t be so little anymore, will you? I don’t even know where to begin. I don’t know if you will be a boy or a girl, but I know without a doubt in my heart I will love you fiercely and protect you always. Even just a little bean in my belly and already I am madly in love with you, doing everything in my power to safeguard you.

I’m sorry for having to leave you with the humans. I’m sorry you will probably grow up feeling left behind, unloved. It kills me to think this. But I have to do this to keep you alive. I wish I could say more, but I don’t know who else might find this letter. You’re going to have to figure it out. And if I’m not around to greet you at your eighteenth birthday when your power-hiding runes wear off, it means I’m dead.

My advice:

*You can trust Celia with anything. I love her like a sister. But you can’t trust her or any of the hunters with my dark secret once you figure it out.

*Don’t trust my mother with anything, and if you want to save yourself years of heartache, don’t even talk to her.

*Spend my father’s money however you want. If it were me, I’d give eighty percent of it away and then buy a fun car and a cute purse.

*Buy a small safe house in cash, and don’t tell anyone where it is. You might need it one day.

*Lastly, love with an open heart. Even after everything, I don’t regret doing that in my life.

Wow, there is so much more I want to say, so much I feel I have to apologize for. I wish I could have been the one to raise you, to see you take your first steps, to hear your first word.

I love you. You are loved. I hope you know that.

Love, Mom

I couldn’t see the words anymore because tears were just streaming down my face and onto the page.

Dark secret? Buy a safe house? I can trust Celia but not with this one thing, nor any hunters? What did my mom get into?

I stroked my finger over the words I love you. You are loved and couldn’t help but weep. I found out I had a mother and lost her all in the same day. I felt like I was mourning a death but also that a giant wound in my chest that had been festering since I was a child had healed. I sat there for a long time staring at the letter, trying to decipher its meaning while also trying not to be overwhelmed by it.

I cried until my eyes burned and my chest ached, and I figured that Celia and others might still be waiting for me out in the courtroom. Placing everything back into the envelope, I wiped my eyes and fixed my hair.