I didn’t wait another second. I had to put my faith in someone. I was short on people to trust, so I grabbed my bags and followed my grandmother out of the dorm. We left my car behind and most of my belongings. Before I knew it, I was on a private jet, and flying under an assumed name with an Irish passport.
“Where are we going?” I asked as the plane took off.
“Better if you don’t ask too many questions yet, darling. You’ll know when we get there. Do you speak any languages other than English?”
“I can speak serviceable Italian and French.”
“Better than nothing, though neither will be much help to you, I’m afraid.”
Nearly nine hours later,we landed and I still had no clue where in the world we were until we were leaving the airport. “We’re in Greece?” I shouted as I spun around to address the woman who claimed to be my grandmother.
Her eyebrows rose in question. “Do you have something against the Greek Isles?”
“Do I?...” I huffed my frustration into the cab of the car that was waiting for us. As the man drove, I realized he could hear everything we said and decided that the less he knew, the better. I wasn’t sure if he worked for my grandmother or was just some hired driver who I might be traced to later.
“Smart girl. We’ll talk later.”
Later happened as the sun rose over the Mediterranean waters and painted the sky in brilliant oranges, yellows, and pinks. We had taken a three-hour ferry ride from Athens to Mykonos after laying a false trail that we got a ride share to Preveza. Once we disembarked the ferry, my grandmother offered me another passport and all the proper documents that claimed I had dual citizenship with the USA and Australia.
“Unfortunately, there’s no hiding that you’re American, so we can’t claim you to be anything else. Your Italian is barely passable and your French is worse, so we couldn’t even use that.” Aine rolled her eyes as she said this, as if I had turned out to be a disappointment.
“Why are you helping me?” I had so many more questions, like how she knew that my linguistics weren’t up to par when she asked me what I spoke earlier. Still, I tucked all those tiny threads aside and focused on the biggest question first.
She turned to look at me then and I could almost see her mind travel back in time. “I should have saved my daughter from the life. Do you think she wanted to marry your father?” She shook her head as her shoulders dropped momentarily.
“My husband forced her hand just as your father would do to you. He wanted her to help secure our foothold in America and I fear that not only did it cost my daughter her happiness, but it also cost her one of her daughters and eventually her mind. She took her own life because she couldn’t live without your sister any longer. Had she married the man she loved, maybe her daughter would still be alive and she would be, too.”
“And what about the daughter you’re helping now?” I spat at her.
She raised her shoulders in an indifferent expression that didn’t suit her posh nature. “I can’t change the past any more than you can. All I can do is hope that your future is better than the other women in our familial line. I want to see one of us live a life of freedom before I leave this world and go join your mother and sister in whatever lies beyond.”
My sister had the luxury of knowing our grandmother. From conversations I’d overheard, and awful things Faye had said to taunt me over the years, I knew that Grandma had at least visited or sent for her daughter and granddaughter to come see her while .
For whatever reason, I was never included in those trips. Grandma stopped coming to the United States before I was born. My mother was pregnant with me the last time Aine Coonan came for a visit.
“This is your new home,” she said as we both turned to a cozy little white building with a bright blue roof. “I am afraid this is the last time we will meet, as I can’t risk anyone finding you through me.” She handed me a card and leaned in to kiss the side of my head. “Should you ever find yourself in trouble, use this,but only if it is an emergency. Once you use it, your identity will be burned and there will be no going back. Do you understand?”
I nodded my head and went willingly into the arms of the woman who appeared cold and calculated while giving the warmest hug I’d ever had from another woman. “I never visited you so that we would have the element of surprise today. If we had a relationship before, I would have been the first suspect your father came to. I wanted to know you, darling, but I wanted freedom for you more.”
It felt like she was family for all of fifteen seconds before she pulled back, gave a quick sniff. “Will you get word to Logan Maddox for me? Find a way to let him know that I am okay.”
Grandma gave me a look that said I should know better, but she at least had the heart to lie to me. “I will do what I can.”
That false promise sat uneasily between us as I turned and walked away from her without another word. With the envelope containing all the details of my new identity clutched firmly against my chest, I worked up the courage, grabbed an old iron key out of the packet, and made my way to the blue door with a number three hanging at an odd angle in the middle.
Of all the places in the world, my grandmother had to choose Greece - the homeland of Logan’s mother. I didn’t think she was originally from Mykonos, but being close to his heritage was not going to make it easy to forget my first love.
EIGHT
Helpless
LOGAN
12 years later
I glanceddown at my phone and picked it up the minute I saw Lucien’s name pop up.
Lucian: Ferraro, Calista. Need a full workup.
