Chapter 2: Everything Except What They Didn't Know About
The cell was cold.
The kind of cold that settles into your bones and doesn't leave.
She sat on the metal bench, hands still trembling, and stared at the floor.
They had taken her phone.
Her bag.
Everything.
Everything except what they didn't know about.
A guard slid a paper through the slot in the door.
She expected a charge sheet.
It wasn't.
It was a photo.
Printed.
Slipped in without a word.
The child.
Standing alone in the garden.
Holding something small in both hands.
On the back, four words written in pencil:
*"They found the room."*
Her breath stopped.
If they had found the room, they had found the box.
And if they had found the box —
The door opened.
A man in a suit stepped in.
Not a lawyer.
Not a detective.
She recognized him immediately.
He worked directly for Mr.
Callahan.
He sat down across from her and folded his hands on the table.
"You're a smart woman," he said quietly.
"Smart enough to know when something is already over."
She looked at him and said nothing.
He leaned forward.
"Tell us where the other copy is.
Do that, and you walk out tonight.
Refuse —" he paused — "and the child goes into state care by morning."
Her hands went still.
Because he had just told her something he didn't mean to.
There was another copy.
And he didn't know where it was.
But she did.
---
What she did next put the entire Callahan family in a position they never expected.
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