Chapter Thirteen: Suspect ii
919 Words
Sarah's phone buzzed against the conference table.
She had been mid-sentence when she felt it. She held up a finger, glanced at the screen and every other thought left her head.
Mom, could you come to the school? Someone is following us.
She knew her son. Adin did not send messages like that for nothing. He didn't exaggerate didn't reach out unless something was actually wrong.
If he had stopped to type those words and press send, it was because something real was happening and he didn't know how to handle it alone.
Her chair scraped back before she had fully decided to stand.
"I'm sorry," she said, already reaching for her bag. "Family emergency."
Nobody argued. She was already walking.
She typed back in the elevator.
I'm on my way. Stay wherever you are. Is Madam Cassy with you?
She didn't wait for a reply. She shoved the phone in her bag and walked faster.
The drive to the school felt longer than it was. Every red light felt personal. Her mind wouldn't stay still; it kept jumping from one thought to the next, turning each one over, looking for the most likely answer. Who would follow her children? Nathan. He wouldn't send someone to triall them right after that was too obvious, even for him. But Emma. Emma was a different story.
Emma had always been watching from the edges, quiet and calculating, waiting for a weak point. If she had figured out whose child was in that viral photo-if she had.
Connected the dots the way Sarah feared she had-then following the kids made complete sense. It was exactly the kind of thing
Emma would do
And then there was the other thought. The one she didn't want to have.
Her father.
She pushed it away and focused on the road.
She pulled through the school gate and was out of the car before it had fully stopped. Adin saw her first. Something in his face loosened the moment he spotted her- just slightly, the way it did when he had been holding something together for too long and finally didn't have to.
He walked toward her with Aria at his side.
Sarah pulled them both in close, one arm around each of them, and held on a beat longer than she normally would.
"Tell me everything," she said.
Adin told her. All of it-Nathan showing up, the scissors, the envelope. The red car that appeared behind their cab and turned when they turned and stopped when they stopped.
The way he had told the driver to go back to the school. The way the red car didn't follow.
He said it all calmly, in order, the way he always did. And that was the part that got to her. Not the danger-she could deal with danger. It was the fact that her five year old son had handled it himself, quietly, without panicking, because somewhere along the line he had learned that panicking wasn't an option. She didn't know whether to be proud or heartbroken. Probably both.
Aria had been listening. She looked up now, something working behind her eyes.
"Mommy... is Uncle Nathan really our daddy?"
The question sat in the air between all of them.
Sarah looked at her daughter. Smoothed her hair back from her face. Kept her voice steady and sure.
"No, sweetheart. He's not."
Aria held her gaze for a moment, deciding whether to accept that.
Then she nodded and reached for her bag,
"Now grab your things," Sarah said. "Let's go home."
The drive back was quiet. Madam Cassy sat in the front, hands folded, face tight with a worry she wasn't bothering to hide. The kids had their earphones in by the time she finally spoke.
"Sarah... if this place is becoming unsafe, why don't you go back to the States?"
Sarah glanced at her, then back at the road. She understood it. The fear behind it, the helplessness of watching someone you care about walk through something you can't pull them out of. Madam Cassy had known her long enough to treat her like a daughter, and right now she looked exactly like a mother who was scared.
"Stop worrying about us," Sarah said, and offered her a small smile.
"We'll be fine. It's just a little misunderstanding-I'll sort it out.
Besides, I'm only here for a few more months."
Madam Cassy pressed her lips together and said nothing more. But she didn't look convinced.
The apartment was quiet when they got in. The kids dropped their bags and disappeared down the hall. Sarah stood in the kitchen for a moment, just standing, letting herself breathe.
She filled a glass of water, drank half of it, and set it down on the counter.
She was still standing there when the knock came.
Hard. Urgent. The kind that didn't wait to be welcomed.
Sarah and Madam Cassy both went still. Their eyes met across the room.
"I'll get it," Sarah said. "You two go to your room," she called down the hall.
She heard their door click shut. She set down the glass.
She walked to the door slowly. Her hands weren't shaking. But they were aware-every step, every breath, something in her body already bracing for whatever was on the other side. She gripped the handle and pulled it open.
The world stopped.
Her breath caught somewhere between her chest and her throat.
"Why..." she managed. Her voice barely sounded like hers. "Why are you here?”
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