ham

d the knot of my silk tie and ripped it loose, gasping for air. The enclosed space triggered the old panic, the suffocating terror of being locked in the dark c

d number. The Bluetooth system in the car beeped loudly b

er echoed through the speakers, followed by the sound of hot coffee spill

quiet register. I told him I knew exactly where his mother and sister lived in Queens. I

ven me the full itinerary back then. He said

ook the car. I roared at the dashboard, demanding to k

e phone line. The only sound was R

s and ordered my driver to turn the car around and head straight to JFK Airpor

ind spot in the schedule, a detour he had scrubbed from the records. On that freezing, snowy day, before g

edgehammer. A high-pitched ringing pierced m

I asked him what she was doing at a maternity hospital. Robert sobbed, saying he did not know. He

ngers. I fell back against the headrest, my mouth opening a

*

nna

in my wide executive chair, watching the city move below me. Lucian w

e echoed in the room, celebrating the perfect exec

iny yellow cabs crawling through the financial district. He turned hi

old him it was not a gamble; it was bait for a starving beast. The naive, desperate girl I used to be had

standard interface, diving straight into the b

r hacker IPs, carrying the distinct digital signature of the Rio

ned me that if Graham found any trace of Leo's

the decoy firewall I had set up months ago. I watched the R

was not hiding the truth. I was feeding Grah

*

ham

t the floorboard. I picked it up.

ashed through the hospital's three-year-old archive system. Th

it to the car's secu

ed document appeared. My hands shook so violently I could barely hold the device. I

: 12 weeks. Fetal heartbeat: critically weak. Rec

lapsed my lungs. The tablet slipped from my numb

into my scalp. A guttural, animalistic sob tore its wa