Novels by Yayi Mother

The white lights buzzed.Too bright after the red. They made the blood look real again. On Justin's shirt. On the floor. On Dominic's torn stitches.No one moved for a second.Then Justin staggered. His hand went to his side. Came away red.Rosie was at him before he hit the wall. "Hey. Uncle Justin. Stay with me."Justin coughed. More blood. "Always hated that name. Uncle.""You're bleeding," Rosie said. She tore a pillowcase. Pressed it to his ribs."I'm aware," Justin said. "Bullet nicked a lung. Maybe. Not dead yet.""Don't be," Dominic said. He stood by the speaker like he expected it to talk again. "We need you.""For what?" Justin said. "Chair's yours. Drive's dust. My part's done.""The backup," Dominic said. "Where?"Justin laughed. Wet. "If I knew, I'd be dead already. Leo keeps it moving. Three sites. Rotates monthly. I only ever saw the decoy.""Then we find it," I said. "Sixty-nine hours then.""Sixty-eight," Antonio said. He didn't look at his watch. "Forty-seven minutes

The red lights hummed. No change. No flicker. Just that low, constant bleed across the ceiling.Rosie paced. Three steps to the window. Three steps back. The glass was reinforced. She knew it. She checked anyway."He's not calling," she said. "It's been an hour.""Fifty-three minutes," Antonio said. He hadn't looked at his watch. He didn't need to.Dominic sat on the edge of the bed. Shirt off. Fresh tape across his ribs. His face was still pale, but his hands weren't shaking. "He'll call.""Because you threatened to kill him," Rosie said. "Great plan. Make the guy with the codes more scared of you than Leo. That worked so well for Dad.""Dad wasn't going to take the chair," Dominic said. Quiet. "I am."The phone on the wall rang.We all froze.One ring. Two.Dominic stood. Too fast. He grabbed the bedrail. Steadied himself. Walked to the wall. Picked up the receiver."Yes," he said.We couldn't hear Justin. Only Dominic's side."No," Dominic said. "You come here. The building's seale

POV: Aliyah Rhodes Red light. That was all there was. Emergency strips along the baseboards, bleeding up the walls. It made the blood on Dominic's shirt look black. Made Rosie's face look carved out. Made the two men on the floor look dead instead of unconscious. The locks had finished cycling. A sound like a vault. Final. Antonio checked his phone again. Tapped it. Held it to his ear. Nothing. "Comms are dead," he said. "Landline too. Leo cut the floor. We're on local power. Generator only." "How long?" Dominic asked. His voice was thinner now. The adrenaline crash was real. "Seventy-two hours if we don't use anything but these lights," Antonio said. "Less if we run heat. Less if we use the med bay." Rosie looked at Dominic. "You're bleeding through." "I know," he said. "You need stitches." "I know." "You'll die before Friday if you don't get them." "Then I die before Friday," he said. "Better than letting Leo see the chart." "Fuck the chart," Rosie said. "Fu

*POV: Aliyah Rhodes* Footsteps. Heavy. More than one set. Coming down the hall toward 901. Rosie heard them. Her whole body went rigid. She looked at the open door, then at Dominic, then at me. “Antonio,” Dominic said. His voice cut through the room. No scrape, no weakness. Command. “Lock it down.”Antonio was already moving. He filled the doorway. Not a guard anymore. A wall. He didn’t draw a weapon. He didn’t have to. The way he stood said no one was getting past him without bleeding for it. Two men in black suits rounded the corner. Not cops. Not doctors. Same cut as Antonio’s suit, but cheaper. They stopped when they saw him. “Private room,” Antonio said. “No visitors.”“Directive 9.2,” the taller one said. “Threat termination. Step aside.”“No,” Dominic said. He was still holding my phone. His knuckles were white around it. The blood on his T-shirt had spread. “Rescind the order.”“Orders come from the chair,” the man said. “You’re not in the chair yet.”“Three days,” Domin

*POV: Aliyah* “Aliyah,” Rosie said. It wasn’t a question. It was a pull. She stepped into the room. Didn’t look at Dominic. Didn’t look at the cream box on the bed. Looked at me. Her eyes were wrong. Not angry. Not scared. Resigned. Like she’d seen this scene before and knew how it ended.“We’re leaving,” she said. “Now.”I stood up. The chair scraped. Too loud. Dominic didn’t move. Didn’t speak. He watched Rosie like she was a door he’d expected to open. “Rosie,” he said. “Don’t,” she said. “You don’t get to say my name.”“Two years,” he said. “That’s a long time to hold a grudge.”“It’s not a grudge. It’s a boundary.” She finally looked at him. “And you just crossed it by dragging her into it.”“I didn’t drag her,” he said. “She walked in. On her own.”“After you paid her tuition. After you summoned her here.” Rosie held up the paper. Hospital letterhead. I couldn’t see what it said. “After you put her on a list.”“What list?” I said. Neither of them answered me. Dominic lo

*POV: Aliyah* I didn’t go to St. Michael’s. Not at 4:07 PM. Not at 5:00 PM. I sat in the apartment until 6:43 PM and told myself I wasn’t going. Rosie was still on shift. The place was empty. The receipt from the bursar’s office was on the table. $259,843.00. PAID IN FULL. It hadn’t moved. I hadn’t touched it. At 6:44 PM I was on the F train. Don’t ask me why. I don’t have a good answer. Mrs. Chen said gifts like this have strings. Justin said I was already his. The text said _Alone_. And I went anyway. Because when a man pays your tuition without asking and knows which side of the bed you sleep on, you want to see his face when he says it. St. Michael’s smelled like bleach and coffee and that metallic thing hospitals have. The same smell from last night, except last night it was on his blood. Tonight it was just the building. The front desk nurse didn’t stop me. She looked up, looked at my face, and went back to her chart. Like she’d been told to expect me. Room 901 was