Chapter 11 - My Mother Signed Him Away
I stared at my mother’s signature until the letters blurred.
Owen watched me carefully.
Marcus looked physically sick.
“She signed this?”
Owen nodded.
“Your guardian consented too.”
Eleanor whispered, “I thought it was a protection agreement.”
“You thought whatever made sleeping easier.”
Marcus grabbed the file.
“What was Asset Twelve?”
Owen’s expression hardened.
“A courier. An observer. A clean kid from a respected family who could go places Victor’s people couldn’t.”
“I don’t remember half of this.”
“You weren’t supposed to.”
I looked at Owen.
“Why did my mother sign?”
“Ask her.”
“I would love to. Nobody will tell me where she is.”
Owen smiled without humor.
“Because she doesn’t trust you yet.”
That landed harder than I expected.
“My mother has been watching me for years and she doesn’t trust me?”
“She trusts you as a daughter. Not as an operator.”
“I’m not an operator.”
“Exactly.”
Rook stepped forward.
“Enough.”
Owen looked at him.
“Still carrying her bags, Jonah?”
Rook’s jaw tightened.
There was history there too.
I was getting tired of history.
Owen turned back to me.
“Victor wants the archive because it is leverage. Celeste wants it because it is leverage. Eleanor wanted the trust because she believed it could buy Owen back. Marcus used it because he thought answers would make betrayal temporary.”
He leaned closer.
“You’re the only person in this family who hasn’t decided yet what truth is worth.”
I hated how much that sounded like something my mother would say.
“So why help me?”
“I’m not.”
His phone buzzed.
He looked at the screen.
Then at Rook.
“You have three minutes.”
Rook’s hand moved toward his weapon.
“Until what?”
“Victor’s team hits the safe house you left Eleanor’s sister in.”
Eleanor jumped up.
“My sister?”
Owen ignored her.
I stared at him.
“You leaked another Palisade address.”
“I leaked a false one.”
Rook understood first.
“You’re testing Victor.”
Owen nodded.
“If his team hits it, he’s still using the beneficiary index. If they don’t, he has another source.”
Rook’s phone rang.
He answered.
Nobody spoke.
Then he ended the call.
“They didn’t hit the address.”
Owen looked grim instead of relieved.
“What does that mean?” Marcus asked.
Owen looked at me.
“It means Victor doesn’t need the stolen index anymore.”
“Why?”
“Because someone inside Palisade is feeding him live locations.”
Every eye in the conservatory turned toward Rook.
Rook insisted we sweep every device after Owen’s warning about the live-location leak. We found nothing on the phones.
Then one of his technicians opened Eleanor’s pearl bracelet. Inside the clasp was a transmitter smaller than a grain of rice.
Eleanor stared at it. “That bracelet was Charles’s last gift to me.”
Rook looked at the serial marking under magnification. “The transmitter is newer.”
Marcus asked, “How new?”
“Three months.”
Eleanor’s expression changed. “I had it repaired in June.”
“Where?”
“Victor’s jeweler.”
Owen swore.
For three months, Victor had known everywhere Eleanor went.
The traitor might not be a person. It might be the assumption that only people could betray you.
Rook removed the transmitter and crushed it beneath a metal tool. Owen watched him.
“You still need to find the live leak.”
“I know.”
I looked around the room. Seven people with access, we had been told. But what if Victor had not compromised one of seven?
What if he had compromised the software all seven trusted?
Rook looked at me. He understood the question before I said it.
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