Chapter 13 - Claire's Choice
Mara heard boots on the stairwell and knew the building was changing around her.
Claire returned with a phone and a page of words Mara was supposed to read. She set both down on a crate.
"Say you fabricated the payroll fraud," Claire ordered. "Say you took the missing workers' documents to sell them."
"And then you let me go?"
Claire didn't answer.
"Look me in the eye," Mara said. "Tell me you will let me go."
Claire sat down heavily.
"My sister works at the other warehouse," she said. "They took her passport. When I tried to leave, they showed me where her children go to school."
Mara remained angry. Claire was responsible, but fear had trapped her too.
"What's your sister's name?" Mara asked.
"Yasmin."
"Then help me get Yasmin out."
"You think it's that simple?"
"No. I think it's that hard."
A man shouted from the hall that police were at the pier. Claire went pale. She turned the phone so its camera faced Mara, then pretended to adjust the recording.
Under her breath, she said, "There's a red emergency lever inside the freezer hallway. It opens the outside loading door. It also trips an alarm."
"Where's Yasmin?"
"Second room after the stairs. Don't ask anything else."
Claire pressed RECORD and stepped back. Mara began reading the false confession, deliberately stumbling over names and dates while Claire slipped a small blade beside her chair.
Through the wall came a sharp sound: three knocks, a pause, three more.
Mara froze.
It couldn't be Sophie. Someone nearby knew the signal.
When Claire went to investigate, Mara used the blade to cut the plastic restraint around her wrists. She stood, swayed, and pushed through the half-open door.
At the end of the hallway stood a woman with blood on her sleeve.
"Are you Mara Reed?" the stranger whispered.
May you like
"Yes."
"I'm Amara's sister," the woman said. "They told us you were dead."
