Page 65 of The Masks She Wore

?“I need you to be truthful with us, Rae,” Malachi stated, his voice shifting into something cold. “You don’t have a choice in the matter now. What was your mother?”

?I frowned, turning back to him. “An art dealer,” I stated. “Did you kill her?” I was the one on trial? Fuck that. I wouldn’t be on trial for something I had no part in.

?His eyes searched mine. “No. What is your name?”

?I ground my teeth together. “Rae Bennett. Did they?” I asked, jutting my chin towards Jack.

?“No. Where were you born?”

?“Here, in L.A. Would you tell me if you did kill her?”

?“Marla and I were friends,” he confessed.

?I scoffed. Friends? If they were friends, I didn’t know my mother at all. Not even in the slightest. My mom was an art dealer. She didn’t have anything to do with this life, she couldn’t. Could she?

?“That’s your choice whether or not you believe us, just know that when we were given your name, we had no idea who you were.”

?My brows furrowed at that, my eyes flicking to Jack’s and back. “Given my name?”

?He nodded curtly. “The purpose of my sons is to carry out the assignments I can’t, with that being said we have never been hired to do anything. One morning, I woke up to a surprise. There was an envelope left on my doorstep with your name on it, the money already wired. They wanted us to kill you, that’s why Jack is here,” he explained, causing my heart to stutter. “The reason you’re still alive is because your past doesn’t make sense. He was curious.”

?Fear spread across my skin like hot honey. I was only alive because Jack got curious? What in the actualfuck? “What about it doesn’t make sense?” I asked, my voice wavering.

?“None of it,” he answered evenly. “Your past doesn’t make sense. From where you were born to your half-brother to the fact that your mother was labeled as ‘dead’ when there is no body or evidence of foul play besides a single pool of blood they never tested.”

?I released a breath of disbelief. They didn’t fucking test it? I hadn’t gotten that far in the paperwork. I assumed with how sure they sounded about it that they had tested it. What the fuck kind of shotty police work was that? “What the fuck do you mean?”

?“Marla never had another kid,” Jack explained. “You were it, Charlotte Alascer. Other than that, your life is too clean, tooidentical to your mother’s.”

?A ringing started in my ears as I straightened, wincing from the pain. I…I was…No. No, they were talking too fast. They were talking…“What thefuckdoes thatmean?” I breathed out, my hands shaking.

?“You are your mother’s only child,” he stated.

?My breathing picked up, my heart was beating far too fast. “I don’t fucking understand.” No. No, this happened in movies, not in real life. Things like this didn’t happen in real life. I was Rae Bennett. I was RaefuckingBennett.

?Malachi angled his head. “You curse a lot when you’re stressed. Marla had the same habit.”

?I rubbed my face and stood, turning to the window, trying to work through the pain in my back as I wrapped an arm around my stomach, my thumbnail finding my teeth. I chewed. A terrible habit, but I couldn’t break it.

?I closed my eyes and thought through the information, trying to catalog it like Donna had taught me. The only way to solve the problem is to remain calm, organize it into pieces. A puzzle couldn’t be put together if half the pieces were upside down and soaked in gasoline.

?I wasn’t Max’s sister, that was something. Areallygood something.

?I used that as a stepping-stone into organizationas I sorted through the other information.

?When my breathing finally returned to normal, I turned back to them, dropping my hands to my side, trying my best to hold onto the woman I had been at the masquerade. Calm, cool, collected. “You know of her?”

?“I knew her,” Malachi corrected. “Marla and I were friends. She spoke of you often.”

?Spoke of me often? So, what? She didn’t have a second family, just a second life? Where she had named me Charlotte and talked about me to dangerous people? What thefuck? “She was an art dealer, what was she doing getting involved with you and some rapist?”

?His eyes narrowed. “I fear I don’t understand where your thought process has gone.”

?God, I loved the way he spoke. Clear, concise. It was refreshing. “Gregory VanHouten,” I replied, glancing towards the pantry and back. “He wrote a letter. They were going to meet in central London to make a deal. That’s what led me to Oliver Abernath.”

?Jack stood and headed for the pantry as Malachi thought through this information.

?I watched after Jack, studying the way he walked, the way his ass looked in those jeans. What was happening? I didn’t understand what exactly was happening. I was Rae Bennett. Rae. Not Charlotte.

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