Chapter 124: The Name in the Dark

Miriam looked lost.

The name hung in the air between them, heavy and suffocating. Aria Delaney. It was just two words. Five syllables. But to Miriam, it felt like a foreign language. She blinked rapidly, the sticky coffee on her eyelashes making it hard to see. She looked at Vanessa, waiting for the punchline. She waited for the rest of the sentence. She waited for the address, the phone number, the dark secret that would explain why Ethan Malcovich was in love with a woman that came out of no where.

But Vanessa just stood there, leaning against the counter, her face hard and unreadable. She had stopped speaking. She looked like she was done.

"Who?" Miriam whispered. Her voice was small, trembling with a mix of confusion and rising panic. "Who is Aria Delaney?"

Vanessa didn't answer. She just picked up a dirty rag and started wiping the counter again, acting like the transaction was finished.

The silence broke something inside Miriam. The shock wore off, replaced by a hot, blinding wave of fury. She had just transferred forty thousand dollars. Forty thousand. That was a year's salary for some people. It was the price of a luxury car. And she had sent it into the ether for two words that meant absolutely nothing to her.

"Aria Delaney?" Miriam repeated, her voice getting louder. "That is it? That is what I paid for? A random name? I don't know any Aria Delaney! I asked you about Norah! I asked you about the woman with Ethan!"

Miriam slammed her hands onto the counter. Sticky coffee splashed up onto her wrists.

"You are scamming me!" Miriam screamed. "You are a thief! I gave you forty thousand dollars and you gave me a name that doesn't exist? Who is she? Is she a model? Is she a criminal? Tell me the connection! Tell me the real information I want to hear!"

Vanessa stopped wiping. She looked up slowly. Her eyes were cold, like stones in a river.

"I gave you the name, the real information," Vanessa said, her voice low. "That was the deal. You paid. I talked. Transaction over."

"Transaction over?" Miriam shrieked. She sounded hysterical. Her hair was a mess, her coat was ruined, and she looked like a madwoman. "You think you can just say a name and walk away? I want details! I want proof! What makes you think you can be ordering me around like I am some fool?"

Miriam leaned over the counter, her face inches from Vanessa's. She was so angry she was spitting.

"You are nothing but a low life!" Miriam yelled. "You are a gutter rat! I am Miriam Dubois! I pay you, you serve me! That is how the world works! You don't get to take my money and give me riddles! Tell me who she is right now or I will destroy you!"

Vanessa didn't flinch. She looked at Miriam’s red, screaming face, and she started to laugh.

It wasn't a happy laugh. It was a dark, cruel sound. It was the sound of someone who knew the game was rigged.

"You want to destroy me?" Vanessa laughed, shaking her head. "Princess, you are standing in a diner in the slums, covered in coffee, screaming at a waitress. You have already destroyed yourself."

"Shut up!" Miriam screamed. "Don't you laugh at me! Tell me something that is worth my pay! Forty thousand dollars! Tell me where she lives! Tell me who her father is! Tell me why Ethan loves Norah!"

Vanessa stopped laughing. Her face went deadly serious. She looked around the diner. It was empty, but the walls were thin. The name she had just spoken—Aria Delaney—was dangerous. It was a name that belonged to a dead man’s daughter. It was a name that was supposed to be buried. If the wrong people heard that Vanessa was selling that name, Freddie’s fate would look like a mercy compared to what would happen to her.

Vanessa realized that Miriam was too loud. She was too emotional. She was going to bring the whole neighborhood down on them.

"Keep your voice down," Vanessa hissed.

"No!" Miriam shouted. "I will not keep it down! I want my money's worth! Who is Aria Delaney! Who is she! Why did you mention the name"

Miriam was shouting it like a broken record. She looked like a broken mother that they stole her fortune. She was wailing the name, over and over again, as if saying it loud enough would make it make sense.

"Who is she! Who is Aria Delaney! Why does that name matter! Give me the truth!"

Vanessa knew she had to end this. Now.

She walked around the counter. She moved fast. Miriam was too busy screaming to notice. Vanessa grabbed Miriam by the arm. Her grip was like iron. It wasn't gentle. It was the grip of a woman who had been in fights before.

"I said shut up!" Vanessa growled.

She dragged Miriam.

"Let go of me!" Miriam cried out, stumbling in her high heels. "Don't touch me! You filth! I paid you!"

"You paid for a name, and you got it!" Vanessa shouted back, dragging Miriam toward the door. "Now get out of my store before you get us both killed!"

Miriam fought back. She tried to dig her heels into the floor, but the linoleum was slippery with coffee and grease. Vanessa was stronger. Vanessa was fueled by fear and adrenaline.

"I heard nothing!" Vanessa yelled, pushing the door open with her shoulder. "I told you nothing! You are crazy! You are drunk!"

Vanessa was shouting for the benefit of anyone who might be listening outside. She needed to make it look like Miriam was just a crazy drunk woman. She couldn't let anyone know she had sold real information.

"You are a liar!" Miriam screamed as she was shoved out onto the sidewalk. "You stole my money!"

Vanessa didn't stop. She kept her grip tight on Miriam’s arm. She dragged her like she was drunk. Miriam’s feet scraped against the concrete. She looked pathetic. The great Miriam Dubois, being hauled out like trash.

Vanessa dragged her all the way to the orange SUV. Miriam tried to grab the door handle, tried to resist, but Vanessa opened the driver's side door and shoved her inside.

"Get in!" Vanessa shouted.

Miriam fell into the leather seat. She scrambled to sit up, her hair wild, her face streaked with brown stains.

"You can't do this!" Miriam sobbed. "I need to know!"

Vanessa slammed the car door shut.

The sound was final. Bang!

It cut off Miriam’s scream. It separated the diner from the car. Vanessa stood on the other side of the glass, breathing hard. She pointed a finger at Miriam through the window. Her lips moved, mouthing the words Go away. Then she turned and marched back into the diner, locking the door behind her and flipping the sign to Closed.

Miriam was alone.

She sat in the driver's seat of her car. The silence inside the vehicle was deafening. The smell of stale coffee filled the small space, coming from her hair, her clothes, her skin. It was suffocating.

She was shaking. Her hands were trembling so bad she couldn't even grip the steering wheel.

It was over. She had lost. She had spent forty thousand dollars. She had been humiliated. She had been thrown out. And she still didn't know who Norah was.

"Aria Delaney," she whispered. The name felt like a taunt.

Who was she? Why did Vanessa say it with such finality?

Miriam felt a scream building in her chest. It started in her stomach, a hot ball of fire, and rose up until it exploded from her throat.

She hit the steering wheel.

Hoonnnk!

The car horn blared into the quiet night. It was a long, angry sound.

Miriam hit it again. And again.

Honk! Honk! Honk!

She was hitting her steering so madly while it blared. She screamed with every hit. She screamed for the money. She screamed for Ethan. She screamed for her mother.

"Why!" she shrieked. "Why is this happening to me! I am Miriam Dubois! I am supposed to win!"

She thrashed in the seat. She clawed at the leather. She felt like she was losing her mind. She doesn't know the pain she was feeling. It was a mix of everything.

It was the pain of rejection from Ethan. The way he looked through her like she was glass. The way he held Norah like she was the most precious thing in the world.

It was the pain of the insult from Aria. The slap in the restaurant. The way Aria had stood there tonight, outside Solara Heights, and looked at her with pity. Pity! Miriam didn't want pity. She wanted fear.

And it was the pain of the extortion from Vanessa. The feeling of being robbed by someone she considered beneath her. The feeling of helplessness.

Miriam leaned her forehead against the steering wheel. The horn stopped blaring. She just sobbed. Her tears mixed with the coffee on her face, dripping down onto her lap.

"I hate them," she wept. "I hate them all."

She sat there for a long time. The street was quiet. The diner lights went out. Vanessa had gone home. Miriam was the only one left in the dark.

Slowly, the tears stopped. The shaking subsided.

She took a deep breath. It was ragged and wet, but it was air.

She sat up. She looked at herself in the rearview mirror. She looked like a monster. Her eyes were swollen. Her face was stained. She looked broken.

But behind the mess, something sparked in her eyes.

The name hit her again.

Aria Delaney.

Miriam paused. She stopped crying. She wiped her face with the back of her hand.

She repeated the name. "Aria Delaney."

It wasn't just a name. It was a key.

And in the world of information, a full name was everything.

Miriam sniffed. She laughed a little saying, “How could I be this daft?”

The laugh was dry and brittle. She felt stupid. She had been screaming for details, but she had the most important detail of all.

There is some information given without dropping details like location. Just a name is enough.

If this woman, this Aria Delaney, existed, there would be a paper trail. People didn't just appear out of nowhere. They had birth certificates. They had school records. They had addresses. They had pasts.

Miriam’s mind started to race. The fog of alcohol and anger cleared. The calculating, cold part of her brain—the part that was her mother’s daughter—took over.

Her thoughts ran immediately.

"Vanessa didn't tell me the connection because she thought I was too stupid to figure it out," Miriam whispered. "She gave me the name because she wanted me to dig. Or maybe she gave me the name because she knows it leads to a graveyard."

It didn't matter. Miriam had a lead. For the first time in months, she had a real, solid lead. Not a rumor. Not a suspicion. A name.

"Tonight I will dig deep into this name," Miriam said to her reflection. Her voice was steady now. "I want to know the connection."

She started the car engine. The orange SUV roared to life. She put it in gear and pulled away from the curb, leaving the broken glass and the bad memories behind.

She was going home. She had work to do. She had forty thousand dollars worth of research to conduct. And if Aria Delaney had any skeletons in her closet, Miriam was going to find them, drag them out, and hang them around Norah’s neck for Ethan to see.