Chapter 20 - Saint AgnesSaint Agnes Academy had no electricity.
Yet every window glowed.
Generators hummed beneath the old gymnasium.
Elena entered through the main doors at 10:43 p.m.
Mara walked beside her despite Clara’s instruction to come alone.
Daniel remained with the tactical team two miles away.
No raid.
Not yet.
There might be children inside.
The hallway smelled of dust and disinfectant.
Yellow tiles.
Rebecca stopped behind them.
“This is it.”
Jonah stood near the auditorium entrance.
Marcus Hale beside him.
Isabel waited in the shadows.
Catherine arrived last.
Seven Crown beneficiaries.
Vanessa absent.
One missing.
Mara counted.
“Elena, Mara, Catherine, Isabel, Rebecca, Jonah, Marcus.”
Seven.
“Vanessa makes eight,” Elena said.
A slow clap sounded from the stage.
Clara stepped into the light.
For the first time, Elena saw her in person.
The resemblance was disturbing.
Not identical.
Clara was thinner.
Scarred.
She carried herself differently.
But there were moments when Elena felt as if she were looking at a version of herself that had never been allowed kindness.
Clara looked at Mara.
“You ignored my instruction.”
Mara replied:
“I have a problem with instructions.”
For a fraction of a second, Clara almost smiled.
Then her face hardened.
“Where is Vanessa?”
Elena answered:
“Someone took her key.”
Clara cursed quietly.
“Crane.”
“You know him.”
“He ran placements after Gabriel became ill.”
“Is he Crown Group?”
“He believes he is.”
Clara walked down from the stage.
“No adult administrator ever understood the irony. The empire legally belongs to the people it victimized.”
Elena looked around.
“Where are the children?”
“Safe.”
“Rebecca’s son?”
“Safe.”
Rebecca lunged forward.
Mara stopped her.
Clara did not flinch.
“He was never harmed.”
Rebecca screamed:
“You took him!”
“Yes.”
Elena stared at Clara.
“Then everything you claim to hate has become you.”
Clara’s expression flickered.
“He would have been returned tonight.”
“You don’t get points for planning to return someone you kidnapped.”
Clara’s jaw tightened.
“I needed Rebecca here.”
“You could have asked.”
“She would never have believed me.”
“Then she had the right not to.”
Silence.
That landed harder than Elena expected.
Clara looked at Rebecca.
For the first time, shame entered her expression.
“I’m sorry.”
Rebecca said nothing.
Elena walked closer.
“Release every child now.”
Clara looked at her.
“If I do, Crane wins.”
“Release them.”
“Elena—”
“Release them.”
Clara held her gaze.
Then lifted a radio.
“Bring Adam out.”
A side door opened.
Rebecca’s son ran into the auditorium.
She collapsed around him.
Two other children emerged with officers from Clara’s own group.
All unharmed.
All frightened.
Clara watched the reunions.
Elena said quietly:
“Now we can talk.”
Clara looked at her.
“You really think you are different from me.”
“I think I’m trying to be.”
A bell rang.
Once.
The old school clock moved to eleven.
Clara turned toward the stage.
“We have one hour.”
A hidden floor opened.
Beneath it stood a circular vault.
Eight slots surrounded a ninth pedestal.
Falcon symbols.
Keyholes.
And one empty golden socket at the center.
The Crown vote.
Clara looked at everyone.
“At midnight, if no valid vote is recorded, the trust renews automatically.”
Mara frowned.
“You said five votes.”
“Five can change the custodian.”
“What does that accomplish?”
Clara removed the twelve ledgers from a locked case.
“It gives us seventy seconds.”
“For what?”
“To separate the archive.”
Elena understood.
Clara had written a program capable of splitting victim identities from evidence against perpetrators.
But she needed control of the trust system to execute it.
“If it fails?”
Clara looked at the children being escorted out.
“Everything publishes.”
“And if we do nothing?”
“Crown Group survives.”
Rebecca held Adam tighter.
“No.”
Everyone turned.
Rebecca stared at the vault.
“I will not choose between exposing children and preserving the people who stole us.”
Elena looked at Clara.
“Neither will I.”
Clara’s face hardened.
“There is no third path.”
Elena stepped toward the vault.
“Then we build one.”
A gunshot echoed from the hallway.
May you like
Marcus Hale fell.
And Nathaniel Crane walked through the door holding Vanessa’s black key.
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