Chapter 7 - My Mother Had Been Contacted Before Vanessa Found Me
“My mother?”
Leah nodded.
I sat back down.
“No.”
“Laura Carter received a call the morning after the fire.”
“She received a casualty officer.”
“Before that.”
My throat tightened.
“From who?”
“I don't know.”
“What did they say?”
“That you might be alive.”
I stared.
Leah continued:
“And that making noise could put you in danger.”
My hands went cold.
“You spoke to her?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
“I found the call reference in Julian's notes.”
“Notes.”
“One line.”
“Could be fake.”
“Yes.”
“Did Vanessa know?”
“No.”
“You're sure?”
“I asked her about Laura twice. She said notification had already happened.”
I stood again.
My body needed movement.
“So my mother may have known I was alive.”
“May.”
“For three years.”
“Rachel.”
“What?”
“Don't do what all of us keep doing.”
I turned.
She stayed seated.
“Don't turn one missing fact into the story you fear.”
I hated the sentence because Vanessa had used the same warning.
“Did you contact my mother?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because if Julian was monitoring her—”
“So you decided.”
“Yes.”
Leah looked ashamed.
“I did.”
I laughed.
“Excellent.”
“I know.”
“Everybody protected me until I had nobody left.”
No answer.
Good.
“What do you want at four?”
Leah reached into her pocket.
Not a magic drive.
Just a visitor pass.
She placed it on the pew.
JULIAN VOSS.
CIVILIAN ADVISOR.
“Julian wants Vanessa to sign.”
“I know.”
“I want her to refuse.”
“Then why do you need me?”
“Because he will argue that Sarah Mercer is real.”
“She was.”
“On paper.”
“I lived under the name.”
“Yes.”
“Then?”
Leah looked at me.
“I need you to say, on record, that you were Sarah.”
My jaw tightened.
“That exposes me.”
“Yes.”
“My address history.”
“Parts.”
“Medical records.”
“Not publicly.”
“You don't know that.”
“No.”
Good.
“And you still brought me.”
“Yes.”
“What happens to you?”
Leah looked away.
“There it is.”
“What?”
“The first question nobody asks.”
I stared.
She continued:
“If the review opens fully, I have to explain why I spent three years inside Julian's organization.”
“Doing what?”
“Working.”
“You said sometimes held.”
“I was.”
“And sometimes?”
“I stayed.”
“Why?”
Leah rubbed the silver ring on her left hand.
The same one Vanessa's photograph had shown.
“At first because I thought I could get the list.”
“And later?”
She took time.
“Because Julian treated me like the person in the room who understood the system best.”
I almost laughed.
“That's enough to stay with a man blackmailing your mother?”
“No.”
“Then?”
“I liked being indispensable.”
There.
Not pure hostage.
Leah continued:
“I kept thinking one more month and I'd have enough. Then one more.”
“Did you hurt people?”
Her face tightened.
“I helped maintain identities I should have questioned sooner.”
“How many?”
“I don't know.”
“That's convenient.”
“Yes.”
She looked directly at me.
“I am not asking you to save me from that.”
Good.
“Is Julian dangerous?”
“Yes.”
“Violent?”
“I've never seen him hit anyone.”
That mattered.
“He destroys options.”
“What does that mean?”
“He learns what someone cannot bear to lose and makes every choice touch it.”
Vanessa and Leah.
Me and my mother.
Mason? No.
Wrong story.
I looked at the clock.
2:43.
“What does Julian think you're doing right now?”
“Convincing you to disappear again.”
I almost smiled.
“He trusts you.”
“No.”
Leah picked up the visitor pass.
“He trusts that I still need him.”
“Do you?”
She looked at the chapel doors.
Then at me.
“I don't know.”
That answer frightened me more than a clean no.
My phone buzzed.
Vanessa.
One message:
JULIAN MOVED THE MEETING TO 3:15.
Leah stood.
“He knows.”
“Knows what?”
“That we're talking without him.”
“How?”
She shook her head.
“I don't know.”
No secret tech explanation.
Maybe someone saw me walk in.
Maybe Julian guessed.
Leah pulled the mask back over her face.
I stared.
“You're going back to him.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because if I don't, he leaves.”
“And if he leaves?”
She looked at me through the mask.
“So does the only person who knows which of the eleven names were voluntary.”
That was the real trap.
Expose Julian too fast, and the people he had genuinely protected could become collateral.
Leave him untouched, and the abused identities stayed buried with the protected ones.
I followed Leah toward the door.
May you like
For the first time, I understood why everyone kept trying to turn the problem into one villain.
One villain would have been easier.
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