Chapter 16 - Elenas Last Choice

At the hospital, Evelyn told Hannah everything she could remember. Elena had found her drugged in a locked room and tried to smuggle her through a service corridor. Security caught them. Elena refused to abandon her.

“She could have run,” Evelyn said, voice breaking. “She stayed.”

Rosa sat beside the bed. For a long time she didn't speak.

Then she asked, “Did my girl know you got away?”

Evelyn shook her head. “I didn't get away. She saved my life anyway.”

Rosa bent forward, her shoulders shaking. Evelyn reached for her hand.

“I'm so sorry.”

“You're alive,” Rosa whispered. “Then her last brave thing meant something.”

Hannah explained that investigators would exhume the coffin and identify Elena formally. Rosa nodded, refusing to look away.

Outside the room, Adrian received a call from the hospital administrator. A man had arrived claiming to be Evelyn's legal guardian, carrying an order authorizing her immediate transfer.

The hospital room was quiet except for the monitor beside Evelyn's bed. Rosa sat so still that Adrian feared she hadn't heard the account. Then she asked one question. 'Was Elena afraid?' Evelyn's eyes filled. 'Yes,' she said. 'But she was angry, too. She kept saying they couldn't keep treating people like they didn't matter.' Rosa pressed a hand to her chest. 'That sounds like my girl.'

Evelyn remembered Elena taking off her own jacket and wrapping it around her shoulders. She remembered a service corridor, a locked exit, and Elena shouting for help when the guards arrived. There were gaps after that. The medication had made time break into pieces. 'I wish I could give you every second,' Evelyn told Rosa. 'You gave me the ones that mattered,' Rosa replied.

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Hannah promised an independent medical examination and a formal identification of Elena's remains. She warned them that the investigation would be painful and public. Rosa didn't hesitate. 'Use her name,' she said. 'No more pretending she never existed.' Minutes later the hospital called about a transfer order, and the room seemed to shrink around them again.

The name on the order was Malcolm Sloane.