CHAPTER 21 — WHAT MARGARET TOLD NOAH
“Noah!” Claire screamed.
Her voice disappeared beneath the roar of the trains.
Noah stepped away from the window.
Margaret kept one hand on his shoulder.
Daniel pushed open the roof hatch.
The gap between the trains had grown to ten feet.
He could not cross.
Claire pulled him down.
“There has to be another way.”
Gabriel looked at the moving map.
“The lower track does not hit the wall immediately.”
Daniel turned on him.
“You said it did.”
“It enters a dead tunnel first. The wall is forty seconds beyond the junction.”
“How does that help us?”
“There is a manual switch at the final station.”
Claire looked at the map.
Their train would reach the station twelve seconds before Noah’s train entered the wall.
Not enough time.
“Can the switch be activated remotely?”
Gabriel looked at the blue key in Elias’s hand.
“Only with both keys.”
The red key was with Margaret.
Daniel struck the wall.
“She planned every part of this.”
“No,” Gabriel said. “Charles did.”
Claire looked at him.
“Charles designed the trains to test whether the family would sacrifice one child to save the other.”
“That sounds like Margaret.”
“My father believed the person holding the ring would refuse to choose.”
“Then he trusted the wrong family.”
Elias approached the control panel.
“What happens if I put my key in?”
Gabriel pointed to a second slot.
“It opens one side of the switch.”
“And Noah’s key opens the other?”
“Yes.”
Elias stared through the darkness where Noah’s train had disappeared.
“What if I turn mine first?”
Gabriel did not answer.
Elias inserted the blue key.
The entire carriage shook.
Half the map turned blue.
A new message appeared.
FIRST CHILD VERIFIED.
SECOND CHILD WAITING.
Daniel’s phone rang.
Margaret’s name appeared.
He answered.
“Put Noah on.”
Margaret laughed softly.
“He does not want to speak to you.”
“What did you tell him?”
“The truth.”
Claire took the phone.
“You don’t know the meaning of that word.”
“I told him the boy beside you is your firstborn son.”
Claire looked at Elias.
Margaret continued.
“I told him the Vale trust recognizes the firstborn male heir. If Elias exists, Noah loses everything.”
“He is seven years old. He does not care about a trust.”
“He cares whether his parents still need him.”
Claire’s stomach tightened.
“What else did you tell him?”
“That you chose Elias.”
“I chose both.”
“Children do not understand both. They understand who is being held and who is being left behind.”
Claire heard Noah crying in the background.
“Let me speak to him.”
There was a pause.
Then his voice came through.
“Mom?”
“Noah, listen to me. I love you.”
“Do you love him more because he was born first?”
“No.”
“Grandmother said you finally found the son you were supposed to have.”
“She is lying.”
“Then come get me.”
Claire closed her eyes.
“I am coming.”
A metallic alarm sounded.
Gabriel looked at the map.
Noah’s train had entered the dead tunnel.
Thirty-four seconds remained.
Margaret returned to the phone.
“The manual switch is behind the sealed door at the final station.”
“What do you want?”
“The ring and its storage chip.”
“You’ll kill us after I give them to you.”
“Perhaps.”
“Then I have no reason to cooperate.”
“You have thirty seconds to discover one.”
Margaret ended the call.
The train began slowing.
Ahead of them, a platform appeared beneath pale white lights.
At the center stood a steel door.
There was no handle.
Only a message carved into the metal.
ONE MOTHER.
May you like
TWO SONS.
ONE CHOICE.
