Chapter 16: The Fire Below
The smoke was not thick enough to be accidental.
Someone had activated the building’s old emergency system and redirected smoke into the basement corridor.
Nina covered her mouth.
“The main entrance is blocked.”
Daniel pointed toward a door behind the records cabinet.
“There’s another passage.”
“How do you know?” Adrian asked.
“I saw the original floor plan.”
They moved quickly.
Leah’s eyes burned as Daniel forced open the narrow metal door.
Beyond it was a service tunnel barely wide enough for one person.
Adrian sent Leah first.
The tunnel sloped downward before turning toward the woods.
Behind them, something exploded in the records room.
Heat surged through the doorway.
Leah crawled faster.
The darkness pressed around her.
Then another memory broke through.
She was small.
Someone was dragging her through a tunnel.
A woman kept saying, “Don’t say your name. Don’t tell them which Leah you are.”
Leah stopped.
Adrian nearly collided with her.
“What happened?”
“I remember this tunnel.”
Daniel looked back.
“Keep moving.”
They reached a rusted ladder.
Nina climbed first and pushed against the hatch above them.
It opened beneath a pile of wet leaves.
They emerged fifty yards from Hawthorne House.
Flames glowed inside several basement windows.
A vehicle sped away along the service road.
Daniel raised his phone and photographed the license plate.
The number was covered.
But the vehicle carried the emblem of Ashford Corporate Security.
Adrian watched it disappear.
“My security team didn’t know we were here.”
“Someone did,” Leah said.
They returned to Nina’s car.
Daniel opened the flash drive on an offline laptop.
The files had been copied from Halcyon Protective Services.
One folder contained photographs of Courage Fund recipients.
Another contained DNA profiles.
A third was labeled SECOND GENERATION.
Inside were names of children whose parents had been housed at Hawthorne House.
Nora Ellis’s name appeared on the list.
So did Mara’s.
So did Grace Bennett’s.
Leah leaned closer.
“My mother was never at Hawthorne House.”
“Maybe the list isn’t about residents,” Daniel said.
He opened Grace’s file.
A scanned letter appeared.
It was written by Celia Bennett three days before the fire.
Grace, if anything happens to me, take the child to the address we discussed. Do not trust anyone wearing the Stewardship ring.
Grace had lied.
She had known Celia before the night Leah was brought to her.
Daniel looked at his sister.
“Mom knew more than she told us.”
Another file contained a recent photograph of Grace meeting a man outside her clinic.
The man’s face was hidden.
The timestamp was from two weeks earlier.
Leah called Grace.
The phone went directly to voicemail.
Nina contacted the security officers guarding the apartment.
No one answered.
Adrian called the building manager.
The manager said Grace had left fifteen minutes earlier.
She had entered a black vehicle voluntarily.
Leah zoomed in on the photograph.
A reflection in the clinic window revealed part of the man’s face.
Adrian stopped breathing.
Leah looked at him.
“You know him.”
Adrian took the laptop.
The man in the photograph was older than Leah had expected. His hair was white, and a scar crossed his cheek.
May you like
But Adrian recognized him.
“That’s my father.”
