Chapter 13 - The Room Beneath the Room
Agnes Harrow looked nothing like the gentle old woman described in June’s letters. Her hair was cropped close to her skull, and a thin white scar ran from her ear to her jaw. She held Eli firmly but not cruelly, as if she believed restraint was the same thing as protection.
“Let him go,” I said.
“You always think freedom is the first answer.”
“You kidnapped my grandson.”
“I moved him out of danger.”
Eli glared at her.
“You lied about my dad.”
Agnes’s face tightened.
“Your father was going to expose every family connected to the placements. He would have destroyed children who had finally found peace.”
“He was trying to find his sister,” I said.
“He was trying to find a story.”
“And you tried to bury it.”
Agnes held up the second photograph. In it, I was pale and exhausted, holding two newborns wrapped in matching blue-and-white blankets. The girl’s face was turned toward the camera. The boy slept against my chest.
“This photograph was taken before Silas ordered the girl removed,” Agnes said.
“June stole it from Dr. Rusk’s office. She gave the other copy to Daniel.”
“Why did James give him the first one?”
“To make him blame you.”
The admission landed with a different kind of shock. The photograph had been real, but the story attached to it had been manipulated. I had not abandoned Daniel. I had not even known there were two children.
Every person who had used the image had chosen the part of the truth that served them.
“Where is my daughter?” I asked.
Agnes pointed toward a steel door.
“She is not here.”
My blood went cold. The door opened behind us. Leonard Price entered with James Venn and two armed men. Ava was between them, her wrists bound.
Her wedding dress had been replaced by a dark coat, but her eyes were steady.
“Mom,” she said.
“Don’t give them anything.”
Leonard smiled.
“Your daughter has inherited your stubbornness.”
“You set the fire.”
“I created an opportunity. The fire was James’s decision.”
James looked at him.
“You said the server would be removed first.”
“And you said Mara would cooperate.”
Their argument exposed the fracture Daniel had described. James had wanted to control the scandal. Leonard wanted to destroy the foundation and acquire its assets through Northbridge. Agnes wanted to keep the children’s identities hidden, no matter who suffered.
Theo’s voice came through the transmitter beneath my coat, almost too faint to hear.
“Keep him talking.”
I took one step forward.
“Leonard, why did you order the attack on Daniel?”
“Because he had the original server.”
“You told James he was dead.”
“He was supposed to be.”
James turned sharply.
“You said the men only had to frighten him.”
“The men misunderstood.”
Theo’s transmitter clicked once. The recording was live. Leonard continued, unaware.
“Daniel found the account that links Northbridge to the old placement program. If he had released it, every donor would have demanded their money back. I would have lost everything.”
“You already had everything,” Ava said.
“Not enough.”
Agnes pulled Eli closer.
“You promised the children would remain protected.” Leonard laughed.
“The children were leverage. That is all they ever were.”
The sentence shattered whatever loyalty Agnes had left. She shoved Eli toward me. One of Leonard’s men raised his gun. James tackled him before he could fire.
The shot struck the ceiling. Ava kicked the second man in the knee, and Clara rushed through the side entrance with federal agents behind her. Chaos erupted. Leonard ran toward the lower corridor.
James followed, then stopped when he saw Agnes standing over the fallen gunman.
“You betrayed us,” James said.
“No,” Agnes replied.
“I finally stopped betraying June.”
James vanished through a service tunnel. Leonard seized the second photograph and backed toward a rusted elevator. I pulled Eli behind me.
“The evidence is already being recorded.”
Leonard looked toward the transmitter beneath my coat. His expression became murderous. He fired at me. The bullet struck the photograph in my hand, tearing through the image of my two newborn children.
The force knocked me backward. Eli screamed. Federal agents returned fire, and Leonard disappeared into the elevator shaft as the doors slammed shut. For one terrible second, I thought I had been shot.
May you like
Then I felt the photograph pressed against my palm, warm from the bullet. The picture had stopped the round. Behind us, James’s voice echoed from the tunnel.
“Mara! The elevator is going to the archive. If you want the last record, come now. It contains the name of Daniel’s biological father.”
