PART 1 — THE WOMAN ON THE SCREEN
The scarred woman on the monitor stared at Valerie with tears streaming down her face.
For a moment, nobody moved.
Nobody breathed.
Then the woman whispered:
"Lucy..."
The name hit Valerie like a lightning strike.
Lucy.
Not Valerie.
Lucy.
The name Marcus had hidden.
The name from the file.
The name stitched onto the school uniform in the photograph.
Marcus immediately lunged toward the monitor.
"No!"
But it was too late.
The woman on the screen was already speaking.
"Lucy, listen to me."
Valerie's entire body trembled.
The woman's face looked familiar.
Not from memory.
From somewhere deeper.
Something buried.
Something drugged.
Something stolen.
"I'm your mother."
Marcus slammed the laptop shut.
The screen went black.
"No more," he snapped.
But Valerie had already heard enough.
A violent headache exploded behind her eyes.
Suddenly flashes appeared.
A car.
Rain.
Screaming.
A little girl crying.
A woman pulling her from a wrecked vehicle.
Then darkness.
Valerie clutched the side of the gurney.
Fragments of memory crashed into her mind.
And for the first time in two years, Marcus looked afraid.
"Sedate her," Eleanor hissed.
Marcus grabbed a syringe.
Valerie's survival instincts finally took over.
She swung the metal tray beside her.
The tray struck Marcus's wrist.
The syringe flew across the room.
Eleanor screamed.
Valerie jumped off the gurney and ran.
Through the hidden hallway.
Through the closet.
Into the bedroom.
Marcus chased after her.
"Lucy!"
The name stopped her cold.
Not Valerie.
Lucy.
Even Marcus wasn't calling her Valerie anymore.
Because the lie was breaking apart.
She grabbed her phone from the nightstand and dialed 911.
Marcus reached her just as the operator answered.
"Help me!"
She screamed.
"My husband is trying to—"
The line went dead.
Marcus had ripped the phone away.
But the call had connected.
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And that was enough.
Somewhere, someone had heard.
