## CHAPTER 5 — THE COUNTDOWN
The forensic technician shouted for everyone to disconnect the servers.
The room erupted into movement.
Drives were unplugged.
Power cables were cut.
Officers carried evidence boxes upstairs.
The countdown continued on the screens even after the main system had been disconnected.
“This network has an independent power source,” the technician said.
“What happens when it reaches zero?” Logan demanded.
“I don’t know.”
Detective Hale ordered the mansion evacuated.
Logan ran upstairs.
He found Noah awake, sitting on the edge of the bed.
The boy was clutching a faded photograph of Claire.
“Shoes on,” Logan said. “We’re leaving.”
Noah looked behind him.
“Marina?”
“She’s coming.”
Outside, rain had begun to fall.
Employees gathered near the gates while bomb technicians entered the estate.
The countdown reached zero.
Nothing exploded.
For three seconds, the mansion remained silent.
Then every exterior light went dark.
A moment later, the estate’s fire suppression system activated.
Water poured through the hidden medical wing.
Not the rest of the house.
Only the red-door facility.
“They’re destroying evidence,” Hale said.
The team rushed back inside.
Several servers had been protected in waterproof cases, but paper records were dissolving beneath the artificial rain.
Logan picked up a floating photograph.
It showed Claire outside a hospital.
She was visibly pregnant.
Beside her stood Marina.
Only Marina looked different.
Her hair was shorter.
She wore medical scrubs.
On the back, Claire had written:
For Elena—the only sister I ever chose.
Logan turned toward Marina.
“Elena?”
She stared at the photograph.
“My name is Elena Marquez.”
“You were Claire’s sister?”
“Not by blood.”
“Then why did you enter my home under a false name?”
“Because Claire asked me to protect Noah if anything happened to her.”
“She died six years ago.”
“I know.”
“You waited six years?”
Elena shook her head.
“I’ve been looking for him for six years.”
Logan’s anger faltered.
“Looking for Noah?”
“No.”
She looked at Claire’s photograph.
“For Claire.”
Before Logan could respond, an officer called from the staircase.
They had recovered a damaged audio recorder from inside the red room.
The last file had been recorded the night Claire supposedly died.
A woman’s voice whispered through the static.
It was Claire.
May you like
And she was begging someone not to take her baby.
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