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Chapter 16
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2026-03-22 08:21:44Alex's POV
I was reviewing the Bayport filing when my phone lit up with Marcus's name. Marcus was not a man who called for small reasons. I'd retained him for three years, paid him well, asked him very specific questions, and he had never once delivered an answer that wasn't worth the interruption. I picked up on the first ring. "Talk to me" "Mason's deployed a search team." His voice was low, economical. "They have the apartmen
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Zara's POVI could breathe again.That was the first thing I noticed when I woke up this morning.... not relief exactly, not yet, just the absence of the tightness that had been sitting behind my ribs since the moment the handcuffs closed around my wrists. I lay in bed for a full minute just registering it. Air going in. Air going out. No knot stopping it halfway.I hadn't slept properly in daysEvery phone call had made me flinch. Every knock at the door had sent my pulse into somewhere uncomfortable. I had spent the time since the station rehearsing versions of an arrest that hadn't happened yet, certain it was only a matter of when.Enjoy your freedom while it lastsReeves's voice had been living in my head since he said it. I hated how much room he'd taken up there.The call came at nineI was sitting by the window with coffee I hadn't touched, when my phone rang. A name I trusted... one of the few left.I answered.I listenedAnd somewhere in the first thirty
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Maya's POVThe questions started at six in the morning and had not stopped by noon.Hospital administrators first... Then security personnel, going over the same ground with a different emphasis. Then a second detective I hadn't met before, working alongside Reeves, asking me to describe the intruder's build, his clothing, anything about his voice.I gave the same maccount each timeBy the fourth repetition, the words had worn smooth, the way anything did when you said it enough times... I kept my eyes on whoever was asking.I kept answeringI expected, somewhere in all of it, to be told who he was.A name. A photograph. Some confirmation that the system designed to catch people who did this kind of thing had caught him, that the footage had produced a clear image, that the staff access cards were logged with names attached and one of those names didn't belong.Instead, at eleven, Reeves came back with something else."The access," he said. "We've confirmed how
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Maya’s POVThe coordination suite felt smaller with just the two of us in it. The harbor glittered beyond the glass like it was mocking us both, endless, indifferent, moving on without caring who drowned.Selina didn’t bother with the soft, apologetic mask anymore. The moment Lila’s footsteps faded
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Maya’s POVThe alarm screamed at 6:00 a.m. sharp, a shrill, unforgiving sound that drilled straight into my skull“Damn it,” I hissed, slapping the phone silent before it could cycle into its second round. My head throbbed part hangover from too much crying, part exhaustion from staring at the ceil
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