Chapter 3 - The Button
The ambulance doors slammed before Ethan could climb in.
“Family only,” the paramedic said.
“She's the only person who knows where my sister is.”
“Then meet us at Mercy.”
Ethan watched the vehicle pull away into the rain. Celeste stood under the hotel awning, her mascara running. Behind her, police cars filled the circular drive. None of the officers seemed eager to chase Victor Ashford.
“What did she mean?” Ethan asked, holding up the button. “Mia did what?”
Celeste's eyes widened. “Where did you get that?”
“From your daughter.”
“Give it to me.”
“Answer the question.”
Celeste grabbed his wrist. “You have no idea what you're carrying.”
He pulled free and walked into the rain.
At home, his apartment looked exactly as Mia had left it eight months ago: a half-finished puzzle on the kitchen table, cheap sneakers beside the couch, her red mug with a chipped handle. Ethan had kept it all because changing one thing felt too much like admitting she was gone.
He held the button under the desk lamp. A groove ran along its edge. He twisted it. The brass split open, revealing a rolled strip of film no wider than a shoelace. On it was a printed row of numbers and a single name: WREN.
His phone buzzed from an unknown number.
YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO TAKE NORA AND LEAVE.
He typed: WHERE IS MIA?
The reply arrived immediately.
SHE'S WATCHING YOU.
A floorboard creaked behind him.
Ethan turned fast. A girl in a hood stood in his doorway, soaked to the skin, holding a kitchen knife in both shaking hands. Not Mia. Younger. Maybe sixteen.
“Don't call the cops,” she said. “Ashford owns the ones who come first.”
“Who are you?”
“Lena Vale. I cleaned his lab.”
“What lab?”
“The one under the north pier. The one where they make people disappear without killing them.”
Ethan lowered his hands. “Did you see my sister?”
Lena nodded once, then started crying. “I helped her escape.”
A white beam swept across the living room window. Tires crunched in the alley.
Lena dropped the knife. “No. They found me.”
Someone outside knocked three times.
May you like
Then Mia's voice came through the door.
“Ethan, open up.”
