“Give them to me. I want to see them.”
“I’m not lying, Theo.”
“I’ll feel safer if you give them to me. I’ll take care of them.”
She swallows and extracts the tiny surveillance devices from her pocket. Avi returned them to her. He told her to pretend nothing happened.
If you tell him, you both die.
Mouth tight, she holds the fistful of cams out to him. He glances across the room, ensuring no one has entered. He extends his hand. She drops them into his palm. She can see him mentally counting the devices.
His fist closes around them.
“And no one saw you—no questions asked?”
Carry on as though everything is normal. Play along with him.
She shakes her head.
“Thank you,” he whispers seductively. “I love you, Rosh.”
She turns away from him, goes to pick up her trays, sets them onto a cart, and wheels it to the door.
She feels Theo’s gaze boring into her as she exits. Roshaan exhales shakily as the door swings shut behind her. Shefeelshe doesn’t trust her. Not anymore. She sees it in his eyes. He knows something is up.
Her interaction with Avi plays through her mind.
“What will you do to him?”
“Think of him as Schrödinger’s magician, Roshaan. Better that box not be opened. Because you won’t like either alternative. You two picked the wrong marks to extort, my girl. Theo has probably already realized this, but you have no idea what you’ve gotten into.”
Poppy
Poppy cannot process. All these years she has wondered who left her in that booth—what cruel and terrible person. She’s been haunted her entire life with the questionsWho am I? Where did I come from? Why did no one want me?
And here sits Lillith. One of the wealthiest women around. Famous war photographer.
Her mother?
“I don’t believe you.”
Lillith nods and blows her nose. Avi sets a glass of water in front of her, and one for Poppy, too.
She looks up at him. He gives a small nod. Almost kind.
Poppy’s heart crumples upon itself. Confusion screams around the edges of her brain. She’s been hit by a bombshell—it’s still exploding in slow motion through her body, and she’s shocked. Dazed. Numb.
“Why? Why did you do it? Why tell me now, after all these years. Is—is this some kind of sick joke? A game?”
But as she utters the questions, she’s struck with the memory of the quote in Lillith’s Death List book.
Nothing sharpens one’s focus quite like the news of one’s imminent death.
That’s why. Lillith’s illness. Her imminent demise. Tying off the loose ends of her life.
Poppy is just another fucking loose end.
Find Poppy.
