登入Chapter 60CHRISTIANAI had been preparing for this since the morning after I used the vial.That was the part none of them had accounted for. They had built their documentation carefully, I did not doubt that, Annalisa was a precise woman who always did everything in increments making sure that she missed nothing out, that could either make or mar a case and Dominic Vael was not someone who filed things sloppily, but they had built it from the position of people who believed they were ahead of the situation, and they were going to pin me down.That they had found something, confirmed something, and were now moving to act on information that I did not know they had.They did not know that I had been watching.Not the testing. I had not known about the testing until the submission was already filed, which was a gap in my preparation that I had noted and accepted and moved past, because spending time on what I had not anticipated was not useful when there was still time to shape what c
Chapter 59ANNALISAEli went to bed at half past seven with the exhaustion of a child who had run hrough the entire garden and then had eaten dinner quickly, refueling what he had lost.I sat beside him until his breathing deepened and his hands went slack and the tension of the past three days began to release its grip on me properly for the first time.I pulled his blanket up and turned the lamp down and left the door slightly open the way he preferred.Dominic was at the table in the main room with his laptop open and two cups of tea already made, which was the domestic version of him that I found used to after long hours of the day, when he knew all I wanted to do was decompress for he night before sleeping.I sat down and wrapped my hands around the cup, as I took a big sip from it, as I said,"Thank you, I needed this." I said as he nodded his head."Of course Annalisa, you are welcome.""The compound," I said."Yes," he said.We had come back to it earlier in the evening, brief
Chapter 58ANNALISAWe pulled through the gates of the Vael estate at half past two in the afternoon.I saw Eli before the car had fully stopped.He was in Cora's arms on the front steps, which meant he had been watching for the car long enough that Cora had brought him outside to wait, and when the car came into view he began doing the thing he did when he was too excited for his body to contain it, a full-body movement that was not quite bouncing and not quite wriggling but was something in between that I had never seen any other child do and was entirely his own.The car stopped.I had the door open before Dominic had fully applied the handbrake, which he accepted without comment because he knew better than to comment on it.Eli was already reaching for me from Cora's arms.He came across the distance between us with the complete commitment of a child who had assessed the gap and decided that falling was an acceptable risk compared to the alternative of waiting another half second,
Chapter 57ANNALISAI answered immediately and the way she said my name in the first half second told me everything I needed to know before she said the next part."She was seen again," Cora said. "Forty minutes ago. The outer edge of the south perimeter this time, not the north. Different position from yesterday." A pause. "The guard moved toward her and she was gone before he covered half the distance. Same description. Dark clothing, adult female, no identifying markers."I was already looking at Dominic."Same person," I said to Cora. "Almost certainly.""The security lead thinks so too," she said. "He has changed the patrol pattern and added a third guard on overnight rotation and he wanted me to tell you that the estate is secure. But Dr. Voss." She stopped. "Eli asked to go into the garden this morning. I told him not yet and he accepted it but he is going to ask again.""Tell him not yet," I said. "Tell him we will be home today and he can go into the garden when we are there.
Chapter 57ANNALISAThe summons arrived at seven fourteen in the morning.I know the exact time because I was looking at my phone when it came through, waiting for Cora's morning update on Eli, and the council notification appeared in the same minute as her message so I read both of them at the same time which was not the ideal way to receive either.Cora first.Eli had slept through the night. He had eaten breakfast already, which she described as enthusiastically, his word apparently having been that the eggs were excellent which was high praise from a child who had opinions about eggs. He had asked about us four times before eight in the morning which Cora said with the warmth of someone who found this charming rather than exhausting.I held onto that for exactly thirty seconds before I read the council notification.Formal summons. My name, Dominic's name, Dr. Henare's name listed as the substantiating medical witness. The submission had been received, reviewed at the emergency in
Chapter 55ANNALISAI did not know that was what they had been doing. I could not confirm intent from a description and a position at a treeline. But I was a woman who had received text messages about her son being caught in crossfire and I was not going to extend the benefit of the doubt to an unidentified figure standing at the edge of the grounds where my child slept.Dr. Henare arrived forty minutes later. I showed her the reformatted findings and she read through them with the attention she brought to everything, line by line, and then she picked up the pen I had set beside the document and signed her name at the bottom of the medical assessment with the clean certainty of someone who had no hesitation about what they were signing."If this goes to the council," she said, "I will testify to the findings in person. Whatever format they require.""I may hold you to that," I said."Please do," she said.She left.Reyes came an hour after that.He had the written account ready, four







