Chapter 14 - The Railway Hospital
Price coordinated with the appropriate agencies before anyone approached the abandoned railway hospital. Its windows were boarded and its records listed the building as unsafe for occupancy. A service road connected it to the warehouses near the river, making it a convenient place to hide people and move supplies out of sight.
Rachel drew the interior from memory. “Basement corridor, three secured rooms. Owen's in the last one. There are cameras but only two guards at night.”
“Why help us now?” Price asked.
“Because Evelyn helped my sister when everyone else looked away. And because I was a coward for eleven months.”
Adrian sat beside Sophie in the safe house while the operation began. He didn't ask to go. He knew she needed him more. I stayed with them, even though every part of me wanted to stand outside that hospital until its doors opened.
Near four in the morning Price called. “We found a man matching your father's description.”
I couldn't speak.
“He's alive, Olivia. He's dehydrated and weak. Medics are with him.”
I covered my mouth and cried without making a sound. Adrian placed a hand on my shoulder. Sophie curled beside me and whispered, “Your daddy's coming home, too.”
At the hospital, my father was thinner than I remembered. Gray threaded his hair, and he had a long scar near his jaw, but his eyes were unmistakably his. He smiled when he saw me.
“You still hate being told to wait,” he said.
I laughed through tears. “You taught me that.”
He reached for my hand. “Listen carefully. Rachel only knows half. Marcus wasn't acting for himself.”
“Who was he working for?”
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Before he could answer, alarms sounded down the corridor. A nurse hurried in with two uniformed officers. A threat had been called into the hospital, and the floor was being evacuated.
My father grabbed my wrist with surprising strength. “The man who signed the orders,” he rasped, “is Adrian's father.”
