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I turned a few more pages, and to my surprise, they weren’t about Maya anymore. Suddenly, the focus of the file was this Korin Lowcastle guy who was her ancestor, and his daughter – Julie. Julie Graves. Obviously, I asked myself... Why did his daughter take the name of her mother, and not the name of her father? The answer came when I turned the page and read that Korin had mysteriously disappeared from his family’s life right after she was born.
I turned a few more pages. As I began to make sense of what this whole thing meant, I felt sicker and sicker to my stomach. Maya had done nothing to deserve her fate. It was all about her family and who her great-great-great-grandfather was.
I heard a creak outside the study, and I stilled. Shuffling footsteps in the lab told me I wasn’t alone anymore. I closed the file, stood up, and tucked it in the back of my jeans. Just as I rounded the desk, the intruder appeared in the doorway. Though, to be fair, I was the intruder here.
It was a woman. She looked old and frail, with hair that was completely white, but with a face so young that it gave me pause. It was as if one half of my brain told me she was old, and the other insisted she couldn’t be older than thirty.
“You’re the bodyguard,” she said.
I wasn’t sure how to play this. I decided to be as monosyllabic as possible and hope she would do the talking.
“Yes, ma’am.”
“What are you doing here?”
I stared at her and refused to answer, curious what reaction that would elicit. She stepped inside the study and looked around. She noticed the files on the desk, let out a sigh, then closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, she seemed sad. Resigned.
“You must think I’m a horrible person,” she said.
I cocked my head to the side. Great. She was talking.
“You must think I’m exactly like my son. I’m not. I never wanted this. But there’s no saying no to Vincent. There’s no changing his mind when something gets into his head.”
My eyes widened slightly. This was Lockwood’s mother! How could she be so young? And still… feel so old? The vibe she gave off felt unnerving. Like there was something about her that wasn’t quite right. Clearly, she was human, but humans didn’t give off such vibes.
“It’s gotten out of control, you know. I keep telling Vincent this has to stop. He has to put an end to it. I’ve already lived way beyond what God intended.” She paused, sighed, and studied her hands. “I used to be religious. Now I can’t pray anymore. It wouldn’t be right.” She looked up at me. “Tell me, what’s the new girl like? I know he has her in the basement. What’s her name?”
“Maya Lucas.”
She nodded. “What does she look like?”
“Brown hair and blue eyes.”
“The girl before her had red hair and green eyes. She must’ve been a beauty. Vincent never lets me see them, says he doesn’t want me to get attached.”
I felt the fire in my belly boil harder, stronger, bigger. I calmed it down with cold, calculated thoughts.
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“Mason.”
She wiped her palms on her long, sensible skirt, which was black and made of wool, then curled her hands into shaking fists at her sides.
“Mason, I must confess something to you. I don’t want Maya to end up like the last one. It would be the last straw. I’m already dead on the inside, though I’m alive and healthy on the outside. I shouldn’t be. It’s all upside down. See, I was diagnosed with cancer very young. Vincent was only fifteen. I did all the treatments under the sun, and I held off for his sake. He needed me. But in the end, I couldn’t be cured, and that was something we both had to accept. I made my peace with it, but Vincent refused to let me die. Since he was a child, he’s studied biology, chemistry, and medicine with passion. When I first told him I had cancer, he started looking for a cure. I let him because I thought it was his way of coping. I never thought he would find a cure. But he did. Unfortunately, it was at the expense of other people’s lives.”
Her story corroborated what I’d read in Maya’s file. It all made sense.
“Tell me something,” I said. “Did Maya do anything to you? Did she hurt you?”
Her eyebrows lifted like I’d just said something that shook her entire world.
“No. Never. Who told you that? Vincent? Oh, he would say anything... I’ve never even met Maya. I told you, he never lets me see them. If anything, Maya is helping me. Her blood is the reason I look so young.” She touched her face and winced. “When I look in the mirror, I see no wrinkles, and it’s uncanny. Oh, how I wish my face showed my true age. I don’t recognize myself. More than that, how I wish my son would just let me go. I know I was never supposed to live this long. I can feel it.”
“What do you want me to do?” I asked.
“What you must.” Her tone turned grave, and she looked me straight in the eye with slightly furrowed brows. “I’ll never forgive myself if Maya ends up like the last one. Like the ones before her. Vincent’s study is off limits, so I know you’re not here because he asked you to bring him something. He’s asleep in his bedroom on the second floor. You’re here because you know what’s been happening in this house all these years, and you want to stop it.”
I nodded. She was wise if she could read me so easily.
