The moment of normalcy she had just grasped—the fleeting warmth of greasy fries and a sweet drink—was ripped away.
Her heartbeat stuttered.
Vatican?
Her lips barely formed the word, her voice a ghost of itself.
A chill raced up her spine.
Eddy wasn't supposed to know that.
Her mind clawed at possibilities, at explanations.
Maybe she had said something. Maybe he just—
She looked up to face him, her vision swimming, her gut screaming.
"You—" Rose swallowed, feeling her tongue turn to sandpaper in her mouth. "You work for my father?"
A statement. A question. A death sentence.
Eddy hesitated.
Just for a moment.
And that was enough.
Rose felt it—the horror sinking in, thick and suffocating.
His eyes flickered, sympathetic. Almost apologetic.
Almost.
"Rose," he exhaled, "I'm very sorry. But do you really think someone as rich as you—someone from your family—a Hansley—would ever be left alone to run?"
The room tilted.
The floor beneath her feet split open.
A dark pit yawned beneath her, ready to swallow her whole.
"You've always been surrounded by people watching over you."
Rose's stomach twisted violently.
No. No, this is wrong. This can't be real.
But Eddy just kept talking. His voice was calm, steady, certain.
"Now, it's time to go home."
"Home." She whispered.
The word hit her like a knife to the ribs.
A prison.
A cage.
A place she had spent her entire life running from.
"Since the beginning...?" she rasped.
She barely heard her own voice.
Eddy exhaled slowly.
"Yes."
The air in the room thickened.
Rose felt it clawing at her throat.
The past rewrote itself in her mind, twisting, reshaping, destroying.
Every moment. Every interaction. Every supposed safe place.
A lie.
Eddy sighed again, like a man who had been waiting too long to tell the truth.
"Since the first time you came in here."
No. No. No.
"Since the case you came to solve here. It was all meant to lure you in."
The words knocked the breath out of her.
She felt the streaks on her Mark burn, twisting, stretching.
It was aching, pulsing like a living thing.
She turned to the drink sitting in front of her, her stomach churning.
YOU ARE READING
Found Obsession
Mystery / ThrillerDetective Roselyn Hansley wakes up to a nightmare she can't remember. Drowned by a serial killer and left for dead, her body survived-but her memories didn't. Stripped of her past and thrust into a life of uncertainty.. As Rose returns to her work...
