Chapter 2: The Moment She Saw the Screen
Marcus was already moving before the echo of his own words faded.
He stormed down the corridor, both guards falling into step behind him.
His phone buzzed in his pocket.
He ignored it.
When he pushed open the bedroom door, his mother's eyes found him immediately — wide, wet, and exhausted.
She tried to speak.
Only a thin, broken sound came out.
Marcus crossed the room in four steps and took her hand.
"I saw everything," he said quietly.
"Every second of it."
Her fingers tightened around his.
Down the hall, Audrey was laughing on the phone, completely relaxed, one hand gesturing as she spoke.
She didn't hear the footsteps stop behind her.
She didn't hear anything until Marcus spoke.
"Hang up."
Audrey turned slowly.
The smile didn't leave her face right away.
It took a moment — one long, terrible moment — before she registered something in his eyes that she had never seen before.
"Marcus, I was just—"
"I said hang up, Audrey."
She ended the call.
Her chin lifted slightly, the way it always did when she felt cornered but wasn't ready to admit it.
"Whatever your mother told you," she began, "you need to understand she's confused.
She's been confused for weeks."
Marcus reached into his jacket and placed his phone face-up on the hall table between them.
The screen showed a timestamp.
A frozen frame.
His mother's face.
Audrey's hand.
"She didn't tell me anything," Marcus said.
"She didn't have to."
Audrey's eyes dropped to the screen.
The color left her face.
And then — from the far end of the hallway — a door opened that no one had expected.
---
What Marcus found out next made the whole situation far more dangerous than anyone realized.
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