Chapter 9 - THE WOMAN WHO HAD BEEN DEAD FOR TWENTY-SEVEN YEARSThe abandoned station was empty.
Too empty.
Lena, Nora, Mia, and the police entered through the eastern tunnel.
The walls were covered with old advertisements.
Dust covered the tracks.
Then they heard crying.
Children.
Lena ran.
A locked metal door stood at the end of the tunnel.
Behind it were voices.
“Eli!”
“Lena?”
The boy's voice answered.
The police broke the door.
Twenty-three children were inside.
Alive.
Terrified.
But alive.
Eli ran directly into Lena's arms.
She held him tightly.
“Where is the woman who brought you here?”
Eli pointed toward the tunnel.
“She said she had to meet Mia.”
Lena turned.
Mia was gone.
Lena's heart stopped.
“Mia?”
No answer.
Then the lights went out.
A woman's voice echoed through the darkness.
“Hello, Mother.”
Nora gasped.
Lena heard footsteps.
A woman stepped into the dim light.
She looked about fifty years old.
Her hair was silver.
Her face was thin.
But her eyes—
Lena had seen those eyes before.
In the photograph.
The little girl holding three coins.
Claire.
Eleanor's first daughter.
Mia stood beside her.
Claire held a knife near the girl's shoulder.
Lena took one step forward.
“Let her go.”
Claire smiled.
“You look exactly like her.”
“Like who?”
“Eleanor.”
Lena shook her head.
“You don't know me.”
“I know everything about you.”
Claire laughed.
“You were poor. You were alone. You worked for a man who stole from you. Then my mother gave you a business.”
“She helped me.”
“She bought you.”
Lena's face hardened.
“No.”
Claire's smile disappeared.
“She bought your loyalty.”
Mia spoke.
“Stop lying.”
Claire turned toward her.
Mia stared at the woman.
“Grandma didn't abandon you.”
Claire froze.
“You don't know anything.”
“She looked for you.”
“For twenty-seven years?”
“Yes.”
Claire laughed.
“Then why didn't she find me?”
Mia answered:
“Because someone kept hiding you.”
Claire stopped.
Lena noticed something.
A scar on Claire's wrist.
The same scar visible in the old photograph.
But Claire was not looking at Mia.
She was looking at the three coins in Lena's hand.
Lena had brought them.
Claire's face changed.
“You have them.”
Lena held them up.
“Your mother kept them.”
Claire's eyes filled with tears.
“No.”
“She did.”
“You're lying.”
“She kept them in a glass frame.”
Claire stepped forward.
“Why?”
Lena answered:
“Because she never stopped waiting for you.”
Claire's hand began to shake.
Then a gunshot exploded through the station.
Claire fell.
Mia screamed.
Lena turned.
Daniel Hart stood at the end of the tunnel.
Holding a gun.
He looked at Claire.
Then at Lena.
May you like
And said:
“She was never the real villain.”
