Anything for Her(81)

He stared at her.

“When I was born, my parents named me Chloe. I was Chloe Marr.”

He made an odd, hoarse sound.

“When I was thirteen, my family went into the Witness Security Program. We had...we still have our own handler.” She tried to smile. “A U.S. Marshal.”

Nolan swore, leaning forward. His electric eyes never left her face. “Why? What happened?”

Allie took a moment to collect her thoughts. She felt as if, by saying her true name aloud, admitting to the Witness Security Program, she had peeled off a layer of skin. Every nerve in her body was now exposed. Allie was bared in a way she had never been before. She wasn’t sure she could stand to be touched.

She told Nolan the story then, how her mother had stayed late at work one day to finish up a project and had overheard enough to realize the company was a front for a mob organization. Worse yet, a hit had just been ordered and carried out. The killer was reporting his success to his boss.

“Mom went to the FBI. If she was to testify in court, she had to disappear immediately. She would never be safe, they told her. My father didn’t want her to testify. I overheard them arguing.”

Her tone a dull monotone, Allie kept talking about her mother’s determination to do the “right” thing, her father’s anger. She even told him why her father had objected to the sacrifice all of them would be making when the victim of the crime had been a crime figure himself. She admitted to the bewilderment she and her brother had felt.

“His name was Jacob,” she told him. “I was jealous when they moved us because they chose the name Jason for him. It was close enough that it still sounded like him. They named me Laura. I hated it.”

She talked about the three and a half horrible years in Oklahoma. The terror of the week when her mother had gone back to New York to appear in court, the fear her family felt that the Morettis would somehow get to her. Then she told him about Laura Nelson.

“I suppose I was always quiet, but I used to have friends. I was confident. But from the moment we left our house in the middle of the night, leaving almost everything we owned behind, I was paralyzed. I didn’t make a single friend in Fairfield. I felt like I’d had my tongue cut out. People would ask me questions and I couldn’t think of the answer fast enough because it wasn’t true. I’ve never been a very good liar,” she said apologetically.

He offered her a crooked smile. “I noticed.”

“I suppose you think that’s a good thing.”

“Yes.”

“My life would have been easier if I was a better liar. I might have adjusted.”

“I am sorry for that,” he said, voice low, deep and still gentle.

“That wasn’t my only problem.” She fanned her fingers and again focused on them rather than his face. “I was a dancer. I was in a special school. I’d already performed with the American Ballet Theatre. Because I was considered a dancer with unusual promise, I’d been featured in newspapers and on television. My face could be easily found with an internet search. When we went into Witness Security, I was told I could never dance again. Someone, somewhere, would recognize me.”

He made another sound, gruff and grieving, and held out a hand. “Will you come over here, Allie?”

She shook her head. “Let me finish.”

Nolan nodded. She still couldn’t look directly at him.

“I realize now that my parents’ marriage was probably already in trouble before all this happened. But Mom’s decision ended it, although it dragged on for another year.

“Dad was the third generation to run his family’s company. Of course it had to be sold. He had to find something different to do with his life. I think he felt so much resentment, whatever love he’d had left for Mom died.

“Jason...well, he’s two years older than I am. He was really angry, giving up his friends and having no say in what happened to us. He blamed Mom. When Dad and she split up, he went to live with Dad.” She swallowed. “He was the only person...” It was too much. She couldn’t finish.

“The only person?”

“Who I could be myself with. Chloe.”

“And he moved out.”

“Yes.” Heaven help her, this was hard. She felt naked in a way she’d never been. No, worse—raw. “Then we got word that someone might have found us or at least was getting close. It freaked the U.S. Marshals Service and they decided to move us and give us new identities again.