Chapter 10 - The Nursery Without WindowsMaya ran toward the sound.
Rachel shouted after her, but Maya did not stop.
Nora and Sophie followed, and Daniels, bleeding but upright, pushed past panicked guards to cover them.
The nursery door was locked with a keypad.
Nora looked at it and shook her head. “Different code.”
Inside, babies cried harder.
Maya searched the wall, frantic. “There has to be another way.”
Sophie pointed upward. “The camera.”
Above the door, a small black camera blinked red.
Maya remembered the red wire. The recorder. The hidden phone.
This entire place was built on watching.
She lifted the black recorder and held it to the camera. “Ethan! Open this door!”
Nothing.
Daniels grabbed the fallen guard’s keycard and swiped it.
Denied.
Again.
Denied.
Then Victor appeared behind them, one hand pressed to his bleeding temple.
He looked older now. Smaller.
Maya stepped back. “Don’t come near us.”
Victor raised both hands. “I know the override.”
Cole was not with him.
Maya’s fear sharpened. “Where’s my dad?”
“Chasing Arden.”
“Then go help him.”
Victor looked at the nursery door. “This is how I help.”
He typed a long code into the keypad.
The lock flashed green.
The door opened.
The room beyond had no windows.
Rows of cribs lined the walls. Some held infants. Some were empty. Bags were packed beneath them, each labeled with a fake name and destination code.
Maya covered her mouth.
Rachel arrived and froze beside her. “Oh my God.”
Daniels immediately called out, “We need medical and child services. Real child services. State police only. No county units.”
His radio still crackled with interference.
Victor pulled a small device from his pocket and smashed it under his heel.
The static cleared.
Daniels stared at him.
Victor said, “Jammer.”
Then he sank into a chair like his bones had finally given up.
Maya moved from crib to crib, checking blankets, touching tiny hands, whispering nonsense comfort because there were no right words. Nora stood in the doorway, crying silently.
Sophie found a stuffed rabbit on the floor and placed it beside the smallest baby.
Rachel began photographing every bag, every label, every wall chart.
Maya stopped at the last crib.
A bracelet around the baby’s ankle read: TRANSFER — 4:30 A.M.
Beside it was a file number.
R-18-001.
Maya’s blood went cold.
Not because she knew it.
Because the numbering continued.
Her mother had uncovered R-17-904.
This had gone on after her death.
Maybe because of her death.
A crash sounded from below.
Then Cole shouted.
Maya ran.
She found him in the chapel, struggling with Arden near the old altar. Rainwater streamed through broken roof panels. Red alarm lights flashed across the walls like warning signs from hell.
Arden held a gun now.
Cole’s hand was locked around Arden’s wrist, forcing the barrel upward.
Maya stopped at the doorway.
Arden saw her.
He smiled through blood on his lip.
“Your mother stood right there,” he said.
Cole’s grip faltered.
Maya went cold.
Arden continued, cruel now. “After the crash. She was alive. She begged me to call you.”
Cole roared and drove Arden back against the altar.
The gun flew loose across the floor.
Maya lunged for it, but Ethan appeared from nowhere, shoulder-first, knocking her down.
He had slipped Daniels again in the chaos.
His hand closed around the gun.
“Maya!” Cole shouted.
Ethan pointed it at her.
For one second, Maya saw everything clearly.
The rain.
The flashing red light.
Her father frozen.
Arden smiling.
Ethan shaking.
Then Nora stepped into the chapel doorway, holding the black recorder in both hands.
She pressed play.
Ethan’s own voice filled the chapel.
Make sure Maya finds the second number. Arden wants to see what she knows.
Ethan’s eyes widened.
Arden turned on him.
Maya understood instantly.
Ethan had planned to use her.
But he had also recorded Arden.
Insurance.
Cowardice had accidentally become evidence.
Ethan looked from Arden to Cole to Maya.
“I was protecting myself,” he said.
Maya slowly stood. “No. You were saving yourself.”
Outside, sirens rose in the distance.
Real sirens.
State police.
FBI.
Ambulances.
The world finally arriving late.
Arden reached for the gun.
Cole tackled him first.
Daniels stormed in and pinned Arden down.
Rachel took the weapon.
Ethan backed away, hands raised.
But Maya saw his eyes move toward the side exit.
She grabbed the red wire from her pocket, the tiny device Cole had removed from him.
Then she threw it at his feet.
“Run,” she said. “Give them one more reason.”
Ethan looked at the doors.
At the sirens.
At his father in cuffs.
At the children watching from the hallway.
His knees buckled.
And for the first time that night, Ethan Arden began to cry.
May you like
Not from guilt.
From knowing he had been caught.
