Chapter 35 - The Woman Who Survived Her Funeral
Rachel called the phone.
Olivia answered on the fourth ring.
“Let me speak to her.”
“I can’t.”
“Are you holding my mother?”
“No. I’m trying to get her out.”
“Where is Dr. Cole?”
Olivia lowered her voice. “He gave the cartridge to Victor. Victor has people inside the building.”
“What building?”
Before Olivia could respond, an older woman spoke in the background.
“Rachel?”
Rachel stopped breathing.
The voice was softer than Miriam’s and weakened by age, but it belonged to the woman from her childhood.
“Mom?”
A long silence followed.
“I am sorry,” Evelyn said.
Rachel had imagined this moment since House Zero revealed the possibility that her mother was alive. She had expected questions, anger or relief.
Instead, she felt eleven years of grief collapse into something she could not name.
“Why did you let me bury you?”
“To make them stop looking at you.”
“They never stopped.”
“I know.”
Rachel looked at Miriam.
“Victor wants me to bring Miriam to the reservoir.”
“Do not do it,” Evelyn said immediately.
“Why?”
“Miriam did not disappear to protect us. She disappeared because she made an agreement.”
Miriam’s face became pale.
“What agreement?” Rachel asked.
The call filled with static.
Evelyn continued, but only fragments reached them.
“Your father discovered…”
“…the third beneficiary…”
“…Miriam chose…”
The line went silent.
Tessa checked the phone.
The signal had not failed.
Someone had ended the call from Olivia’s side.
Miriam walked toward the station exit.
Rachel blocked her.
“You are not leaving until you tell me what my mother meant.”
Miriam slowly removed the green ring.
Inside the band was a Northline identification number.
“I was not merely hiding from Northline,” she said. “For seventeen years, I helped create it.”
Outside, an engine started.
A black vehicle pulled away from the station.
May you like
On the rear seat, Rachel saw Dr. Cole watching them through the window.
Beside him sat Celia Ward.
