CHAPTER 16 :The First Family
The first family arrived before sunrise.
Snow covered the mountain road, turning the world outside the Laura Blackwood Center into a silent field of white.
Ethan stood near the entrance as a dark SUV stopped beneath the covered driveway.
Rachel stepped out first.
Her expression told him something had gone wrong.
A woman followed her from the vehicle. She appeared to be in her mid-thirties, but fear had aged her eyes. She wore no coat, only a thin gray sweater over hospital scrubs.
Two children climbed out behind her.
The older child was a boy around eleven. He carried a backpack against his chest as though someone might take it.
The younger girl held a stuffed fox missing one eye.
“This is Marissa Lane,” Rachel said. “Her children are Noah and Elsie.”
Ethan opened the door wider.
“You’re safe here.”
Marissa looked past him into the center.
“People keep saying that.”
Her voice was exhausted.
“They said it at the courthouse. They said it at the hospital. They said it when they appointed Gideon Price to protect my children.”
“What happened?” Ethan asked.
Marissa looked at Noah.
The boy lowered his eyes.
Rachel answered for her.
“Price obtained an emergency guardianship order four days ago. He accused Marissa of emotional instability and medical neglect.”
“That’s not true,” Marissa said quickly. “Elsie has a heart condition. I questioned a procedure they wanted to perform.”
“What procedure?”
“They wouldn’t tell me.”
Olivia approached from the hallway, already holding a legal folder.
“We’ll review every document.”
Noah suddenly looked toward Sophie.
She stood at the top of the staircase in her pajamas, one hand resting on the railing.
The boy’s face changed.
“You’re her,” he whispered.
Sophie slowly came downstairs.
“Who?”
“The girl from the balcony.”
Everyone became still.
Sophie stopped several feet away.
“How do you know about that?”
Noah tightened his grip on the backpack.
“They showed us the video.”
Ethan stepped forward.
“Who showed you?”
“The people at the house.”
Marissa turned sharply toward her son.
“What house?”
Noah looked frightened.
“The house Mr. Price took us to while you were in the hospital.”
Marissa’s face lost its color.
“You told me you stayed with a foster family.”
“That’s what he said I had to tell you.”
Rachel crouched beside him.
“What happened inside that house?”
Noah glanced toward the windows.
“There were other kids.”
“How many?”
“I don’t know.”
“Why did they show you Sophie’s video?”
Noah looked directly at her.
“They said she ruined everything.”
A soft mechanical sound came from the front entrance.
Daniel looked toward the security panel.
One of the exterior cameras had gone dark.
Then another.
And another.
The lights above the driveway flickered.
Daniel reached for his radio.
“Lock the center.”
The security doors began closing.
Before the final door sealed, something slid across the floor from outside.
A white envelope.
Ethan approached it carefully.
His name was written across the front.
Inside was a single photograph.
It showed Sophie standing in front of the bronze plaque during the opening ceremony.
The photograph had been taken less than twenty-four hours earlier.
Someone had drawn a red circle around her face.
On the back, four words had been written:
THE CENTER WAS BUILT FOR US.
Ethan looked through the glass doors.
A figure stood beyond the falling snow.
May you like
Watching them.
Then the lights went out.
