Chapter 42: Still Being Watched
968 Words
Chapter 42: Still Being Watched
Bonny’s POV
Silence hit the room like a physical force.
Even the air felt tighter.
Adrian moved instantly.
“Trace it,” he snapped at Vanessa.
“I’m already—”
“Faster.”
The woman on the line didn’t rush.
That was what made it worse.
Calm voices always belonged to people who believed they were in control.
“Bonny,” she said again, softly. “You don’t remember me, but I remember you.”
My throat tightened.
“Who are you?”
A faint pause.
Then:
“I used to sign off on placement approvals.”
Naledi stiffened violently beside me.
Vivienne went still.
Adrian’s expression sharpened.
“You’re hospital administration,” I said slowly.
“Formerly.”
Of course.
Everyone in my life was “formerly” something dangerous.
“What do you mean I’m still being watched?”
A small exhale.
“Because your file was never closed.”
My stomach dropped.
“That’s impossible.”
“Nothing about your case was ever properly finalized.”
Vanessa’s fingers flew across the keyboard.
“I’m getting routing anomalies,” she muttered. “This call is bouncing through layered proxies.”
Adrian’s voice went cold.
“Meaning someone wants to remain untraceable.”
“Yes,” Vanessa said. “And they’re very good at it.”
The woman continued.
“There were seven candidates in your grouping.”
My breath caught.
“Seven?”
Naledi whispered, “Grouping…”
Vivienne’s jaw tightened.
“The selection list,” she said quietly.
“Yes,” the woman confirmed. “You were one of seven girls flagged under the same profile.”
My vision blurred slightly.
Not from tears this time.
From scale.
I wasn’t an isolated tragedy.
I was part of a category.
That was somehow worse.
---
“Why?” I asked.
My voice sounded distant even to me.
“What was the purpose?”
The woman hesitated.
For the first time.
“I don’t know the full architecture,” she admitted. “I only processed outcomes.”
Adrian leaned closer to the phone on speaker.
“Outcomes for what?”
A pause.
Then carefully:
“Long-term familial placement alignment.”
Mara made a choking sound.
“That is corporate kidnapping language,” she said.
No one disagreed.
Vivienne’s face had gone pale.
“That phrase,” she whispered. “I’ve seen it before.”
Adrian looked at her sharply.
“Where?”
“In internal correspondence years ago. I assumed it was my mother being theatrical.”
A bitter laugh escaped me.
“Turns out she wasn’t being theatrical at all.”
---
Vanessa suddenly froze.
“I’ve got something.”
All eyes turned.
She turned the screen toward us.
A digital map loaded.
Multiple points.
All connected.
My name appeared at one node.
Amelia’s at another.
Three more unfamiliar names.
All within the same region.
“All seven candidates,” Vanessa said quietly.
My chest tightened.
“Where are the others?”
She hesitated.
“That’s the issue.”
Adrian’s voice lowered.
“What issue?”
“Four are marked ‘inactive.’”
The word hit wrong.
Wrong enough that I didn’t want clarification.
I got it anyway.
“Meaning?” I asked.
Vanessa swallowed.
“Unreachable. No recent data. No confirmed activity.”
Naledi whispered, “Dead…”
No one corrected her.
Because no one could guarantee otherwise.
---
The woman on the call spoke again.
“I wasn’t supposed to contact you.”
“Then why are you?” I asked.
A pause.
“Because the system changed after Sheila Moreau’s death.”
Vivienne’s eyes sharpened.
“What changed?”
“The funding structure.”
Adrian straightened immediately.
“Explain.”
“The foundation didn’t collapse,” she said. “It redistributed.”
My blood went cold.
“Redistributed to who?”
Silence.
Then:
“Private successors.”
Vanessa’s face tightened.
“Successors isn’t a legal term.”
“No,” the woman agreed. “It’s not legal at all.”
That was the moment the room shifted from shock to danger.
Because illegal systems were harder to kill.
They adapted.
They hid.
They survived.
---
Adrian’s voice turned razor-flat.
“Why tell us this now?”
The woman hesitated.
Then:
“Because one of the successors has begun reactivating old files.”
My stomach dropped.
“Which files?”
A beat.
Then:
“Yours.”
Everything stopped.
Even breathing.
I felt Naledi’s grip on my hand tighten painfully.
Vivienne whispered, “No…”
Mara said nothing for once.
Adrian didn’t move.
I couldn’t either.
My voice came out smaller than I intended.
“Why mine?”
The woman’s answer was almost gentle.
“Because yours was never resolved.”
Vanessa looked up sharply.
“That’s what she said earlier.”
Adrian’s gaze flicked to me.
Then back to the phone.
“Who is reactivating them?”
A pause.
Longer this time.
Then:
“I don’t know the name they’re using now.”
“Now?” I repeated.
“Yes.”
My pulse spiked.
“What does that mean?”
The woman exhaled slowly.
“But I recognize the operational style.”
Vivienne’s voice turned quiet.
“Tell us.”
Another pause.
Then:
“The son.”
The room froze again.
Adrian’s expression changed instantly.
Dangerously.
“What son.”
The woman’s voice dropped.
“The one who never forgot the system his mother built.”
Silence swallowed everything.
Then Adrian spoke.
Very quietly.
“Turn on location tracking for this call.”
Vanessa nodded rapidly.
“I already am.”
“Where is she?”
Vanessa stared at the screen.
Then went still.
“Cape Town signal cluster,” she said.
My heart stopped.
I looked at Adrian.
He was already moving.
“We’re going back.”
- Writer
