Chapter 7 - SOMEONE TOOK POPPY OUT OF SCHOOL
Sadie ran.
She did not remember leaving Raven Hill.
Did not remember Ronan ordering cars.
Did not remember June shouting behind them.
Only the school.
Blue gate.
Plastic chairs.
Poppy’s uneven pigtails.
The woman at reception looked confused when Sadie arrived.
“Poppy was collected at eleven.”
“By who?”
“Your authorized emergency contact.”
“I don’t have one.”
The receptionist went pale.
Then turned the screen.
Authorization uploaded that morning.
Name:
June Callaway.
Sadie looked at June, who had arrived behind them.
“I didn’t.”
Signature forged.
Identification scan attached.
Real June ID.
Copied.
Someone had planned this.
Security video showed Poppy leaving with a woman wearing a Beacon Staffing jacket.
Face obscured by sunglasses.
Poppy did not appear frightened.
She held the woman’s hand.
Sadie could not breathe.
Ronan grabbed her shoulders.
“Look at me.”
She tried to pull away.
“Sadie.”
His voice cut through panic.
“Look.”
She did.
“We find her.”
“Don’t promise things you don’t control.”
His hands loosened.
“You’re right.”
That mattered.
He corrected:
“We do everything possible.”
Police issued an alert.
Road cameras.
Airport.
Train stations.
No private retaliation.
No men kicking doors on guesses.
Sadie forced herself to think.
Why put Declan’s flash drive into luggage labeled with Poppy’s name?
Maybe not literally her luggage.
Maybe a reservation.
A planted identity.
Then school security found something under Poppy’s chair.
A folded paper.
Not from kidnapper.
From Poppy.
Her handwriting.
MOMMY—
THE LADY SAID GRANDMA JUNE GOT SICK.
I WENT TO HELP.
SORRY.
Poppy thought she was helping.
Sadie nearly broke.
Then beneath it:
SHE KNOWS YOUR HAND SIGN.
Sadie froze.
The woman had used sign language.
Which sign?
The receptionist remembered.
Poppy had signed back through the gate.
I love you.
Pinkie curled.
Sadie’s private version with her daughter.
No outsider should know it.
Unless they had watched them.
Or knew Lena.
Or Aaron.
June whispered:
“There’s one woman.”
Sadie turned.
“Who?”
“Claire Marsh.”
Edwin’s younger sister.
Another hidden Cain child?
No.
Same mother.
Not Sterling’s daughter.
Edwin’s maternal half-sister.
She worked for Beacon Staffing.
Sadie felt sick.
“The agency.”
June nodded.
Claire could choose assignments.
She could send Sadie to Raven Hill.
She could know Sadie’s address.
School.
Work schedule.
She could plant an employee wearing Beacon clothing.
“Why?”
June’s face tightened.
“Claire believed the Cains destroyed Edwin’s life.”
Then Ronan received a message.
Video.
Poppy sat inside a car.
Safe.
No restraints.
Holding her pink backpack.
A woman’s voice said:
“Sadie, your daughter is unharmed.”
Sadie’s hands shook.
“Bring Evelyn Cain to Pier Seven.”
Ronan’s expression changed.
The voice continued:
“Bring her alone.”
Then:
“She has the second half of Declan’s code.”
Video ended.
Sadie stared.
They did not want money.
They did not want Ronan.
They wanted Evelyn.
May you like
Because Declan had split a secret between Sadie and his mother.
And someone had finally realized only the two women together could unlock it.
