Maya's POV
I turned my phone off at seven a.m. Not because I was in danger. Because I needed one hour when nobody needed anything from me and I could sit in my own kitchen and think without someone else's urgency crowding out my own.
I'd read the statement Luca released. I'd read Morrison's confirmation. I'd watched the coverage shift in real time from my kitchen counter with cold coffee and the particular hollowness that comes after a night of no sleep.
Then I'd called my principal.
Margaret Chen, no relation, had run the school for fourteen years and responded to the crisis the way good administrators do, with questions first and conclusions after. I told her everything. Not the federal case details, not the Santoro family history, but what directly touched the school. My prior relat
