CHAPTER 6 — ROOM SEVENTEEN

The clinic had been closed for fourteen years.

Its windows were covered with steel panels. Dead vines climbed the stone walls. A rusted sign still read:

THORNE INSTITUTE FOR NEUROLOGICAL RECOVERY

Evelyn entered through a side door with Mara and Gabriel behind her.

The air smelled of dust and chemicals.

Most rooms were empty.

Room Seventeen was not.

Its door had been reinforced from the outside.

Mara bypassed the electronic lock.

Inside stood a hospital bed, medical equipment, and hundreds of photographs pinned across the walls.

Every photograph showed Evelyn.

At school.

At college.

On her wedding day.

Sleeping beside Julian.

Standing at her father’s grave.

Someone had been watching her entire life.

A woman sat near the window with her back to them.

Her white hair fell over a thin hospital gown.

Evelyn stopped breathing.

“Mother?”

The woman turned.

She looked older.

Fragile.

But the eyes were unmistakable.

Celeste Vance was alive.

Evelyn crossed the room and dropped to her knees.

Celeste touched her face with trembling fingers.

“You grew up.”

Evelyn could not speak.

For years, she had imagined what she would say if she could see her mother one more time.

Now there were no words.

Only anger.

“Why did you leave me?”

“I didn’t.”

“Then where were you?”

Celeste looked toward Gabriel.

His hand had moved beneath his coat.

“Don’t,” Celeste warned.

Evelyn stood between them.

“What is happening?”

Gabriel pulled out a gun.

Mara immediately raised hers.

Celeste did not move.

“Ask him who identified my body,” she said.

Evelyn looked at Gabriel.

He remained silent.

“Ask him who signed the death certificate.”

“Gabriel?”

His face tightened.

“I was protecting you.”

“From my mother?”

“From what she had become.”

Celeste smiled sadly.

“No, Evelyn. He was protecting Nightingale from me.”

Alarms suddenly screamed throughout the building.

Mara checked the cameras.

Black vehicles surrounded the clinic.

Julian had found them.

Then Celeste whispered the words Evelyn feared most.

“He didn’t come to rescue me.”

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She looked at Evelyn.

“He came to take you back.”