My Sister’s Substitute 의 모든 챕터: 챕터 71 - 챕터 80

Gerald found Zachary at six in the evening.Not physically — not yet — but digitally, which apparently in Gerald's world was almost the same thing. He called Neo from somewhere that sounded like he was moving fast and spoke for four minutes and when Neo hung up he had the expression of a man who had received information that was simultaneously clarifying and infuriating."Talk," Irina said.They were still in the library. At this point she was fairly certain she was going to die in this library. Not literally — hopefully not literally, given current circumstances — but metaphorically. Every significant thing that had ever happened to her in this house had either happened in this room or ended up in this room and today was apparently not breaking that pattern."Zachary has been in contact with these people since before the accident," Neo said. She stared at him. "Before the accident.""Gerald thinks he was approached about eight months ago. Before you and I had any connection, before A

She showed Neo the text without saying anything.She just held the phone out and watched him read it and watched his face do the thing — the controlled cold stillness that she'd learned to read as Neo at his most serious, the kind of serious that didn't need to be loud because it was already everything.He read it once. Twice.He called Gerald.The call lasted forty-five seconds and contained approximately twelve words from Neo's end and whatever Gerald said in response made Neo's jaw do something she'd never quite seen it do before. Not the regular tightening. Something deeper. Something that lived below the jaw in the chest.He hung up. Looked at Irina."Gerald is pulling his team from the property perimeter and redirecting to the hospital," he said. "Anna's security is being doubled in the next twenty minutes.""Okay," Irina said."We're going to the hospital.""Now?""Now."Sasha was already on her feet. "I'm coming." "Sasha—" "Neo. I'm coming."He looked at his sister for one se

Neo was already moving.Down the corridor toward Gerald's men, phone to his ear, the focused urgent energy of a man who had assessed a situation in two seconds and was implementing a response before most people had finished understanding the problem.Irina stood outside Anna's door. Sasha stood beside her.They looked at each other."She wouldn't," Sasha said. But she said it the way people said things they were trying to convince themselves of rather than things they already believed. "Neo, she wouldn't actually—""Sasha," Irina said gently. Sasha stopped.Looked at the door. The thing about Sasha McKinney was that underneath all the sharpness and the hostility and the ferocious protective energy she'd been directing at various targets for her entire adult life was a person who loved her family with everything she had. Irina had known this for weeks. Had known it since the piano room and the my dad used to play that and the way she'd stood in the hospital corridor the night Neo was

Nobody moved for a full second.Anna stood in the doorway in her hospital gown looking like someone who had woken up, heard things she wasn't supposed to hear, and had made a decision about that. The IV line trailed from her arm. Her hair was slightly scattered had zero percent of her usual polish and one hundred percent of her usual authority and the combination was, honestly, impressive."Anna," Dr. Osei's voice came from somewhere behind her. He appeared at her shoulder looking like a man whose carefully managed recovery plan had just walked out of bed at two in the morning and was standing in a corridor. "You need to—""I need to know what's happening," Anna said. "I've been awake for the last forty minutes. I heard voices. I heard my mother-in-law's voice." She looked at Neo. "Former mother-in-law. Whatever." She looked at Sasha. At Irina. Back at Neo. "I heard enough to know that something significant just happened in this corridor and I am not going back to that bed until someo

She read the text again. Then a third time.The name on the screen was accompanied by a New Zealand number and a message that was six words long: I know about my mother. Help.Six words.She looked at Neo. "Anna has a daughter.""Apparently," he said. Still with that expression. The one she didn't have a word for yet."In New Zealand.""That's a New Zealand number," he confirmed."And you knew," she said. Not accusatory. Just — placing it."I didn't know," he said. "I knew nothing about this. I've known Anna for years and I had absolutely no idea she had a—" he stopped. Looked at the text again. "A child."Sasha had abandoned the ceiling tiles.She was reading the text over Irina's shoulder with the focused attention of a woman who had processed an enormous amount tonight and had apparently decided she had room for one more enormous thing."How old," Sasha said."The text doesn't say," Irina said. "How do they know about Anna," Sasha said. "If Anna has a child in New Zealand and nobo