Chapter 13 - THE MOMENT SHE OPENED HER EYES
I was not allowed into the room immediately.
Paramedics surrounded Mara.
Two officers searched the tunnel.
Ortiz stayed beside me.
I saw only pieces.
Dark hair.
A thin arm.
Bruises.
A hospital blanket.
I had imagined finding her a thousand times since Perrin told me she was alive.
Nothing prepared me for the reality.
She looked smaller.
Fragile.
Almost transparent beneath the fluorescent lights.
But she was breathing.
That was everything.
When paramedics moved her onto a stretcher, I stepped closer.
"Mara."
Her eyes remained closed.
I touched her hand.
Cold.
Her fingers moved.
Barely.
Then her eyes opened.
For two seconds, she looked terrified.
She tried pulling away.
"It's me."
Her breathing changed.
"Caleb?"
"I'm here."
She stared at my face.
Then she began crying.
Not loudly.
Just tears slipping toward her temples.
I leaned over her.
"I'm sorry."
She shook her head.
"Perrin."
"Safe."
"Promise."
"I promise."
Her eyes closed again.
At the hospital, doctors treated dehydration, malnutrition, infection and injuries in different stages of healing.
They also found evidence of prolonged sedation.
I wanted names.
I wanted charges.
I wanted everyone responsible locked somewhere they could never see daylight.
Ortiz reminded me that Mara needed me more than my anger did.
So I sat beside her bed.
At noon, Perrin arrived with a child psychologist and my sister-in-law.
He froze at the doorway.
Mara opened her eyes.
Everything else disappeared.
"Mommy?"
Her face crumpled.
"Perrin."
He ran.
A nurse tried stopping him.
Mara lifted her arms.
Perrin climbed carefully onto the bed and buried himself against her.
For several minutes, neither of them spoke.
I stood beside the window and cried where Perrin could not see me.
Later, when he fell asleep in a chair, Mara looked at me.
"You came back early."
"I changed my flight."
She smiled weakly.
"Why?"
"A meeting was canceled."
She closed her eyes.
"One canceled meeting."
I knew what she meant.
If I had arrived the next day, Perrin might have been moved.
Mara might have disappeared again.
Rhea might have finished whatever she had planned.
"Where is Rhea?"
Mara asked.
"Missing."
"Bell?"
"Missing."
"Voss?"
"Missing."
Fear entered her expression.
"They'll come back."
"Police are everywhere."
"That won't stop Bell."
"Who is he?"
She looked toward Perrin.
"Not here."
I leaned closer.
"Tell me."
Her voice dropped.
"Your father worked for him."
I felt my stomach tighten.
"Simon said Bell might be the Director."
Mara shook her head.
"No."
"Then who?"
"I never found out."
She looked at me carefully.
"But Bell knows."
A nurse entered.
Mara stopped talking.
That evening, police found Warren Voss's body inside an abandoned car.
He had been shot once.
No weapon was recovered.
Rhea was still missing.
May you like
Bell was still missing.
And the only person who might have known the Director's identity was now dead.
