Sarah had the phone in her hands for less than three minutes before she looked up from the screen with an expression Adrian had never seen on her. Not fear. Confusion."The signal was routed through six different relay points across three countries. Whoever sent this knows exactly how to hide.""Can you find the origin?""The last relay point is local. The signal's final bounce came from a location roughly forty minutes outside the city." She turned the tablet toward him. A red dot pulsed on the map over a grey patch of land marked with no name and no address. "It is an old research facility. Officially decommissioned five years ago. No registered owner, no utility accounts, no active permits.""Then that is where we go.""Adrian, I have to advise against this. Walking into an unknown facility based on an anonymous message is exactly what someone who wants to trap you would want you to do.""If they wanted to trap me, they would not have sent a message first. They would have just done

Kathy was kneeling beside an open cabinet, pulling out a folder that had been stuffed beneath the photograph. She opened it and froze. Her face went pale."Adrian. This logo."He looked down at the folder in her hands. A company emblem was printed on the front page, silver and black, simple and clean. Kathy's fingers were gripping the edges of the paper so hard they were bending."This belongs to a company connected to my family. I have seen this exact logo in my mother's private files.""Are you sure?""I am sure." Her voice was stiff, defensive. "But that does not mean my family is involved in whatever this is. Someone could have used the name without authorization. It happens all the time in business.""Or someone inside your family knows exactly what happened to me and has been hiding it.""That is not possible.""Kathy, someone built this laboratory. Someone funded these experiments. And someone put your family's logo on the front of a folder with my name on it. We cannot ignore

The screen went black. Adrian stared at it, waiting for more. Five seconds passed. Ten. Then white text appeared against the dark background, one line, sharp and clean."Do not trust the person who saved you." The words sat on the screen for exactly three seconds before the monitor died completely. The room was silent except for the hum of the old computers and Kathy's breathing beside him."The person who saved you." Kathy's voice was flat and careful. "Who saved you after prison?"Adrian did not answer. His mind was already turning, already sort

The word hit Adrian harder than anything Julian had ever said to him. Harder than the prison sentence, harder than Chloe's forgotten voice on the phone, harder than the fifty dollars and a dropped pin on a map."My mother." He said it out loud, but the words felt like they belonged to someone else. "My mother contacted Skyward."Sarah stood very still. She had delivered the truth and now she was waiting for it to land, the way a person waits after throwing a stone into water to see how deep it goes."How? She was in a hospital bed. She could barely breathe. How did she contact a technology company?""She contacted us before your arrest, Adrian. Not after."Adrian's head snapped toward her. "Before?""Six months before you signed those papers. Your mother came to Skyward's early office in person. She walked through the door without an appointment, asked to speak with whoever was in charge, and sat in the waiting room for four hours until Chris agreed to see her.""That's impossible. My

"Strong enough for what? Mom, someone stole my work. Someone sent me to prison for it. And you knew something was wrong before any of it happened.""I didn't know everything. I only knew that people were watching you. People who scared me." Her fingers tightened around his hand with whatever strength she had left. "I went to Chris because I did not know who else to trust. I told him to find you if anything happened to me. I told him your work was important and that bad people wanted it.""Who were the bad people, Mom? Who arranged all of this?"Mary's breathing changed. It became faster, shallower, and the monitor beside her began beeping with a higher, more urgent tone."It was not just Julian." Her voice cracked, and she coughed weakly. "Julian was a tool. A stupid, cruel boy who did what he was told because someone offered him money and power. But the person behind it, the person who wanted your work, it was someone closer. Someone you trusted.""Who? Mom, tell me who."Her eyes fi