Chapter 7 - The Mother Behind the Glass
Noah stepped in front of Emma.
“You are not shooting her.”
Laura’s weapon remained steady.
“You should not have come here.”
“You left me for eight years.”
“I stayed away to keep you alive.”
“That is what everyone says before they hurt someone.”
Pain moved across her face.
Principal Vance reached for Emma’s backpack.
“Give me the storage drive.”
Emma struck his hand with her crutch.
Vance raised his pistol.
Laura fired first.
The bullet struck the wall beside his head.
“Do not touch her.”
Vance turned on Laura.
“You said you would control this.”
“I said I would bring the children downstairs.”
Tyler moved toward the glass room where his sister sat.
Vance caught his coat.
“Do not.”
Tyler pulled free.
“You locked her down here.”
“She is sick.”
“She is eleven.”
The younger girl pressed both hands against the glass.
Her name was Grace.
Bruises circled her wrists.
Laura lowered her weapon.
“Noah, listen carefully. The cameras are active.”
“Whose cameras?”
“Richard’s partners.”
The medical corridor was not only a prison.
It was a stage.
Haven’s leaders were watching through hidden lenses, waiting to see who betrayed them.
Laura had aimed at Emma because she needed Vance to believe she remained loyal.
She moved closer to Noah and slipped something into his palm.
A small transmitter.
“The ledger is being copied from this facility,” she whispered.
“Where is Sarah?”
“Grant moved her this morning.”
Emma heard.
“Where?”
Laura looked toward Vance.
He was unlocking the glass room.
“Ask Lily.”
The witness girl stumbled out.
She had been sedated, but she remained conscious.
“Mrs. Hale was inside the nurse’s van,” she whispered.
Emma remembered the car that struck Mrs. Carter outside the school.
The driver had not been escaping.
The van had been transporting Sarah.
Vance opened a side door.
Officer Dorsey entered with four armed men.
Laura lifted her weapon again.
“Take the children to processing.”
Noah stared at her.
She gave the smallest possible nod toward the transmitter.
He understood.
They had to appear captured.
Dorsey removed Noah’s phone and forced everyone into a windowless classroom beneath the corridor.
Grace ran to Tyler.
He held her tightly.
“I am sorry.”
She did not answer.
Lily sat beside Emma.
“I saw Tyler push you.”
“I know.”
“I also saw Mrs. Bennett talking to him before class.”
Noah turned toward Laura through the wired glass window.
Lily continued.
“She told him to take your backpack before Principal Vance did.”
Laura had ordered the theft.
But perhaps not the shove.
Emma looked at Noah.
“Your mother knew what was inside.”
“She wanted to protect the evidence.”
“Or destroy it.”
Noah wanted to defend Laura.
Then he remembered every adult who claimed secrecy was protection.
He no longer accepted words without proof.
The transmitter in his palm began vibrating.
A voice came through the tiny speaker.
Sarah.
“Emma, can you hear me?”
Emma covered her mouth.
“Mom?”
“I am inside the transport van beneath the loading dock.”
“How do we reach you?”
“There is a service tunnel behind the classroom wall.”
A metal vent loosened near the floor.
Sarah had activated something remotely.
Noah removed the screws with the edge of Grace’s hair clip.
The opening led into a narrow utility passage.
They crawled one at a time.
Emma struggled because of her damaged prosthetic support. Noah stayed behind her, guiding her injured leg over the pipes.
They reached the loading dock.
A white medical van stood beneath the school.
Mrs. Carter lay unconscious in the passenger seat.
Sarah was locked inside the rear compartment.
Emma pressed both hands against the glass.
Her mother opened her eyes.
For the first time in eighteen months, they saw each other without a camera between them.
Noah found the door controls.
Before he could open them, Laura appeared at the tunnel entrance.
She held her gun beside her leg.
“Move away from the van.”
Noah faced her.
“Help us.”
“I cannot.”
“Why?”
Laura looked toward the ceiling cameras.
“Because Haven is not controlled by Richard Vance.”
“Then who controls it?”
The van engine started by itself.
Steel doors began closing across the loading dock.
Laura rushed toward the driver’s side.
A gunshot sounded from the upper corridor.
She fell against the van.
Principal Vance stepped from the shadows.
“You were always too emotional about the children.”
He entered the vehicle and locked the doors.
The van accelerated toward the closing exit.
Emma struck the rear window.
“Mom!”
Sarah screamed her name as the vehicle disappeared into daylight.
Laura pressed one hand against the blood spreading across her side.
Noah knelt beside her.
“Who controls Haven?”
She forced a folded photograph into his hand.
It showed a group of school board members at a charity dinner.
In the center stood Noah’s aunt Rebecca.
Laura whispered one sentence before losing consciousness.
May you like
“She started it.”
Continue to the next part: The attorney Noah trusted to protect Emma may be the founder of the network that erased both their mothers.
