Chapter 7: Safe Haven
By 3:00 AM, an unmarked transport vehicle carried Clara, Maya, and a medical escort to a state-run crisis safehouse nestled in the wooded foothills thirty miles outside the city. The rain had turned into a thick, clinging fog that masked the roads.
Maya was settled into an austere but secure bedroom on the ground floor. For the first time in weeks, the young girl fell into a deep, uninterrupted sleep, free from the physical agony inside her stomach.
Clara sat at the kitchen table with Detective Ramos, sipping lukewarm coffee. The tension in Clara’s shoulders hadn't eased; if anything, the silence of the woods felt heavier than the bustling hospital.
"We cracked the first layer of encryption on the drive," Ramos disclosed, tapping her tablet. "It’s not just narcotics formulas. Thomas was selling compromised clinical trial records. Dozens of pediatric cases where dosages were illegally altered to pass fast-track approval."
Clara felt sick. "He knew what he was doing was harming children. Yet he still did it to his own daughter."
"Greed makes monsters out of ordinary men," Ramos replied. "We’ve issued an all-points bulletin for his arrest. Border control and airports are flagged."
May you like
A sudden snap of a branch outside the perimeter fence cut the conversation short.
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