All Chapters of The Barren Wife's Revenge : Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

"Somebody has to know," Nora said. "Someone in that house needs to know there's a stranger in it right now.""Call Constance," Priya said. "She's the one still there.""She might be the one who let them in.""She might not. You don't know either way.""I don't." Nora stood up from the plastic chair. Her legs had gone stiff from sitting so long, and her feet felt worse than her legs did, worse than they had all night. "If I call her and she's the one who hired Sentinel, I just told her I'm onto her. If I don't call her and someone's actually in that house to hurt her, that's on me too.""So call someone else.""Vivian.""You trust her.""I don't know if I trust her. I know she stood in a doorway tonight and told Constance no." Nora was already scrolling for the number. "That's more than I've gotten from anyone else in that family in five years.""Six weeks," Priya said. "Not five years.""Feels like five years.""You've got Vivian's number saved.""From the badge system pull. I wasn't

Nora sat in the plastic chair until the numbness in her feet spread up to her knees. The laundromat had gone quiet. All the dryers had stopped. The only sound left was the hum of the vending machine in the corner. She counted the ceiling tiles again. Twenty-three. No, twenty-four. She'd lost count twice. Her phone was face-up on the table, screen dark. She didn't reach for it. No new texts. No calls. No dots indicating someone was typing back. Just silence since Vivian's phone had gone dead. Everything's fine. Sorry for the confusion. Long night, that's all. Those words were burned into her skull. She could hear them in a voice that wasn't Vivian's. Sorry for the confusion. Vivian had never apologized for anything in the four months Nora had known her. The woman who'd refused to call security for Constance didn't say sorry for a confusion that wasn't hers. Somebody typed that for her. The thought landed cold in her chest. She reached for the phone. 3:47 AM. Thirteen minutes until

Nora arrived at Union Station at 8:45 PM. The station was busy. People moved in every direction. Trains arrived and departed. Announcements echoed off the high ceilings. She found the library. It was a small room with glass walls. She could see every entrance. She picked a seat near the back. She placed the book on the table.She waited.Fifteen minutes passed. Twenty. The library was quiet. People walked past but did not enter. Nora watched them all. She studied their faces. She looked for anyone who lingered. She looked for anyone who looked back.At 9:02, a woman walked in.She was older. Late fifties, maybe. Gray hair pulled back. A worn coat. A leather bag over her shoulder. She scanned the room. Her eyes stopped on Nora. She walked to the table.She sat down. She placed a file on the table between them. She looked at the book."You brought it," she said."You asked me to."The woman nodded. She looked tired. Her hands were steady but her eyes were not. She had been waiting a lon

Nora drove for forty minutes with her eyes on the mirror more than the road. No headlights behind her. Still, her shoulders would not drop.The safe house turned out to be a cabin, small and plain, wood walls under a metal roof, one window lit from inside. She parked behind the shed and cut the engine."Stay here," she told the others, and got out alone.She circled the cabin first. Doors locked. Windows secure. No tracks in the dirt, no sign anyone had been near it. When she came back to the car her breath had slowed a fraction."It's clear."Margaret climbed out with her bag. Priya followed with her laptop clutched to her chest. Nora carried the file.Inside, the cabin held one room: a table, four mismatched chairs, a stove, a bed pushed into the corner, a bathroom door standing half open. No phone line. No internet. Nothing for anyone to trace.Nora threw the bolt on the door."This is it."Margaret sank into a chair. Priya set up her laptop on the table. Nora spread the evidence o

Nina Chen took the chair across from Nora and set her bag down beside it. Her eyes went straight to the file."This is everything," she said. "This is what I've been waiting for."Nora opened it and spread the evidence across the table, photographs, spreadsheets, medical records, letters, names, dates, and walked her through it piece by piece."Petrov, typing the diagnosis code at six forty-seven, the night of the gala." She moved to the next photo. "Constance, reading over his shoulder." Then the third. "Adrian, watching from the doorway."Nina took notes without interrupting once. She asked a question here and there, quiet and precise, questions that said she already believed what she was seeing but needed it confirmed out loud.Nora slid the spreadsheet across. Twelve families. Twenty women. Seven years."This is Margaret's file," she said. "She was married to Arthur Kane. They did the same thing to her. She lost her baby. She lost everything."Nina looked at Margaret. Margaret nod