Interrupting this reunion wasn’t my goal. Saving Araneae by setting her free from the sights of McFadden was.

Araneae stood and came toward me.

“The clock is ticking,” I said as she placed her delicate hand on my arm and turned to Annabelle.

“I asked Sterling to give us some time alone.” Her head tilted. “I hope we can have more in the future.”

Annabelle nodded. “I’d like that as well.”

I walked Araneae back to her chair and assisted her in sitting before taking a seat across from Judge Landers. “I invited myself here today. You were honest with me when you came to my office. It’s my turn.”

“I hope for my daughter’s sake that we can always be honest with one another.”

“You told me,” I began, “that you didn’t believe the old wives’ tale of your husband passing on evidence to Araneae.” I looked to Araneae. “She has no idea about any of it. I’ve filled in as many blanks as I could. She knows what Daniel knew and who it involved.”

Judge Landers lifted her hand. “I don’t.”

“Judge Landers, can you really say that? Can you profess to that when your daughter’s life is on the line?”

She visibly paled. “Are you threatening Araneae, here in front of me?”

Araneae’s hand came back to my arm. “No, he’s not...” She sat taller. “...Mother.” The title seemed to come uneasily from her lips, yet her saying it had Judge Lander’s attention. “Sterling has been brutally honest with me. You yourself said that you named me to be strong and resilient. I am. I’ve been on my own since I was sixteen.”

Annabelle audibly gasped. “Why?”

“We don’t know,” I answered. “It all coincides with Daniel’s death.”

“Prior to that, as I’d said,” Araneae went on, “I was raised by great parents. I was raised as Renee Marsh.”

Annabelle’s eyes narrowed. “I was told you called yourself Kennedy Hawkins.”

“When I was sixteen, my mother...” She hesitated. “...my father, the one I knew, had died in an automobile accident. My mom took me to the airport and gave me a new identity. She told me that Chicago wasn’t safe, and I was never to come back.”

“At sixteen? You were abandoned at sixteen?” There were new tears in her eyes.

“Not abandoned,” Araneae said, “sent away, for my protection. It was what I was told.”

“We believe,” I said, “that Josey Marsh believed she was doing what was best for Araneae.”

“That was when she told me that you had named me Araneae, and you’d given me to her for safekeeping. She said there were bad people after me, and I needed to get away from Chicago and never come back.”

“Did she tell you who?” Annabelle asked.

I sat up straighter. “She warned her about the name Sparrow, my father and me.”

“What? And then you searched for her?”

“It should be obvious,” I said, “my intentions are to help Araneae. Yes, I found her to hurt Rubio, to get that evidence, but now...” I reached out and covered Araneae’s hand. “...I will do whatever is necessary to protect her. When I walked in here, you said that had been your intention in keeping her. You told me that someone took that opportunity away from you. Today you have the opportunity again. We need to find that evidence.”

“To hurt Rubio?” Annabelle asked.

“If I said yes,” I asked, my tone deepening, “would you choose him over Araneae?”

Annabelle moved her gaze from me to Araneae and back. “No. I’d choose my daughter. I’d make the choice I was never allowed to make twenty-six years ago. However, if it comes to that, I may require your help, Sparrow’s help.”

Araneae’s big light-brown eyes turned my way.

“If you need it,” I said, “you have it. Right now, we need to find the evidence for him.” I leaned back. “He said he had a copy and so did my father. He also said he saw it and knows it exists. Daniel told him...” I wasn’t going to tell Annabelle Landers that Rubio McFadden killed her husband. “...near the end of his life that he’d made another copy. He told Rubio that Araneae is the key.”

Annabelle’s head shook back and forth. “Are you saying that Daniel knew our daughter was alive? And Rubio has known for ten years?”

I let out a long breath. “I can’t answer about Daniel with one hundred percent assurance. My father knew. He showed me her picture...” Technically, I found her picture. “...when I was thirteen. In that picture, Araneae was seven years old. Each year I was shown an updated photo. My father told me that she was mine.”

“I-I don’t understand. Your father was watching her? He planned for the two of you...why?”

“All I know for sure was that he was getting at least yearly updates,” I clarified. “They ended when Renee Marsh became Kennedy Hawkins. I was at the University of Michigan at the time, but I had help. We found her again. Up until I lured her back to Chicago, Araneae, without her knowledge, has been under Sparrow protection. Mine, not my father’s.”

Annabelle leaned back in the chair. The table was littered with most of the lunch Araneae had arranged. Outside the windows, life was occurring, the way it did. Sparrow Enterprises was making money. Sparrows were around the city doing what they did. Yet within this small office, it was time to come clean and learn what we could.

“What do you want from me?” Annabelle asked. “I never saw evidence.”

“Then why would he say I was the key?” Araneae asked.

The judge’s head shook. “I never understood why Daniel did anything that he did.” She looked back to Araneae, her gaze going to her wrist. “He gave me the bracelet you’re wearing right before you were born.”

Araneae lifted her wrist. “This came from my...other mother. She gave it to me before she sent me away on the plane.”

“It’s the same bracelet. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it at the club. I don’t know how any of this happened.” She tilted her head toward the bracelet. “Have you changed the picture in the locket?”

As Araneae struggled with the locket, I reached over and pried it open. “It’s faded,” I said. “I can’t see what it is.”

“It was a picture of the church where we were married.”

“How did my mom get it?” Araneae asked.

“Daniel gave it to me just a day or two before you were born. We were up in Wisconsin...” She sighed. “...I blamed him for what happened to you. I wasn’t supposed to leave Chicago. One morning, while I was supposed to be on bed rest, he drove me up there. The snow started falling.” Her eyes closed as if she were seeing the scene from the past. “I was terrified I’d go into labor. The roads were nearly impassable. We had stopped at this little out-of-the-way motel. I didn’t understand why he’d do that. He started to tell me what he’d done and why we were in danger. I refused to listen. I was a judge. I couldn’t be made to testify against my husband, but if I knew...” Her sentence trailed away.

Araneae and I both nodded.

“He left me there.”

“Alone in a snowstorm?” Araneae asked.

“He wasn’t acting like himself. But when he came back, he was calmer. That’s when he gave me the bracelet. However, back then, it only had two charms.” She touched the charms. Where did you get the scissors and the diploma?”

“From someone very special. The diploma was when I graduated high school. The scissors were to commemorate the ribbon cutting of Sinful Threads.”

“I’m so proud of all you’ve done.”

Araneae glowed with Annabelle’s praise.

“Back then,” the judge went on, “when you were born, it only had the locket and key.”

Araneae and I both looked toward one another as I reached for her wrist and lifted the charm, the one that looked like an old key. It was smaller than a standard skeleton key for a door. My mother’s house still had interior doors that took skeleton keys. The one on the bracelet was less than half the size, some of the gold had chipped away, exposing the metal beneath.

Turning to me, Araneae asked, “Did he say that I’m the key or I had the key?”

“Fuck. It can’t be. Where would it lead? What could it possibly open?”

We both turned to Annabelle.

“The minister who married us,” she said, “gave Daniel the bracelet for our daughter. That’s what Daniel told me. It had belonged to the minister’s wife. He wanted it passed on and they had no children. We were married at a small church in Cambridge, Wisconsin. We were never very religious, yet I remember when Daniel returned from visiting the minister and talking to him, I thought that he had a new sense of calm. He agreed to go back to Chicago.

“Is that minister still living?” I asked.

Annabelle shook her head. “I don’t know. I doubt it.”

Araneae reached out to the judge. “It may be a long shot, but is there anything, a lockbox, a...” Her head shook. “...jewelry box, anything that you can think of that my father could have used to hide the CDs that Rubio thinks I have?”

“I can’t think of anything. I moved after he died. The house was too big and lonely. Everything was cleaned out. A lot was donated.”

“Did Rubio...? Was he around when you moved?” I asked.

She nodded. “Yes, he had people to help.”

I looked to Araneae and shook my head. “Then it wasn’t there. He’d know.”

Her soft brown eyes swirled with ideas. She turned to Annabelle. “He went to the church and afterward he was calmer?”

“Yes, well, he said he talked to the minister. I assumed that was at the church.”

“Mom, can you tell us the minister’s name and the church?”

“I love hearing you call me that.” She sat straighter in her seat. “The minister’s name was Watkins, Kenneth Watkins. The church was...” She reached for Araneae. “...it’s where you’re buried.”