The Rose He Killed novel Chapter 235

Chapter 211: The Discussion

Bella pov

He came in and stopped in the doorway. He looked at the scene, the open envelope, and the note flat on the table. He came over and sat beside me instead of across from me.

I handed him the photograph without speaking.

He took it and looked at it. He was quiet for a long time. Then he said, “Bella.”

“I know,” I said.

“That’s”

“I know,” I said again.

He set the photograph down very carefully and looked at it again, then at me. His face held a rare look of complete wonder, as if he was seeing something too big to understand.

“She looked exactly like you,” he said.

“I look like her,” I said. “She was first.”

He was quiet, his hand found mine on the table.

“She wrote a note,” I said. “For me. She left it with the law firm when she knew she was sick. She wanted me to know I was wanted.” My voice stayed flat and calm, which surprised me. “She wanted me to know his name.”

Caleb picked up the note. He read it slowly, the way he read things that really mattered. When he put it down, his jaw was tight. He was holding back his anger.

“She trusted a law firm with this,” he said, “and they took years.”

“They found me,” I said. “Eventually.”

“She trusted them to find you,” he said. “And she trusted Marchetti to be worth finding. She wrote that while she was dying, Bella. She used her remaining time to make sure you had a choice.”

I looked at the photograph. Elaine Voss was laughing in the afternoon sun, showing the same amber eyes she had given to me.

“She wanted me,” I said.

“Yes,” Caleb said.

“My whole life, I believed I was born to people who didn’t want me.” I kept my eyes on the photograph. “But she wanted me before I was even born. Before she told anyone. Before she had a plan.” I paused then continued. “She chose me first.”

Caleb squeezed my hand.

“I emailed him,” I said. “Marchetti, this afternoon. Before this arrived.”

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< Chapter 211 The Biscussion

+know, Caleb said. “You told me.”

“He wrote back already,” I said. “Two hours ago. He said he can meet me whenever I travel.”

Claim

I stopped. The line from Sebastien’s sss was sitting in my memory with perfect clarity: I have thought of little else since I saw your photograph. I did not know I had been looking for you until I found you.

“He said he didn’t know he was looking until he found me,” I repeated.

Caleb was quiet for a long time as the clock moved.

“What do you need?” Caleb asked finally.

I looked at my mother’s face in the photograph. It was taken years ago in the city where she met the man who didn’t know I existed.

“I want to go to Lyon,” I said. “I want to look at him and see if what she wrote is true. That he was kind. That he was honest.” I picked up the photograph carefully. “I want to find out if I look like him too, or just her.”

Caleb nodded. “Then we go to Lyon.”

“Okay,” I said.

“Okay,” Caleb said. “What day are we thinking about? Next week? We will need to talk to Nadia and Maya about it.”

“The sooner the better,” I said. “If we wait two weeks, I will just spend days thinking about every bad thing that could happen. I will make up stories in my head. Let’s try for Monday.”

Caleb reached for his own phone to check his calendar. “Monday works. I have a couple of meetings, but I can move them or take them from the hotel. Since Nadia lives here, we don’t have to worry about schedules for her coming and going. She can just handle the regular school runs for Tom and keep Grace on her normal routine.”

“That makes it easier,” I said, feeling a small bit of relief. “Nadia is so good with them. I know they will be completely safe and happy here at home with her.”

“What about Maya?” Caleb asked, leaning back in his chair. “Are you going to tell her?”

“I will contact her,” I said. “She has been so busy recently because her office branch is expanding, and I really don’t want to stress her. But I will definitely inform her before we leave.”

Caleb chuckled. “I am a bit envious of your friendship.”

I arched my eyebrows at him. “Keep being envious.”

He looked back down at the letter from my mother. “Do you think he will be shocked when he sees you? In the sss, he said he saw the picture. But seeing someone in a magazine is different than seeing them

across a room.”

“He might be,” I said softly.

“If you look as much like her as this picture shows,” Caleb said, “it will probably feel like seeing a ghost for

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<Chapter 21 the Discussion

him.”

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