Chapter 12 - A Voice Across Time
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My heart was beating so hard it felt like it would crack my ribs. I slowly walked over to the rusted desk, my boots crunching over shards of broken glass.
Lena kept her gun pointed at Lucas, while her security guards flanked the hallway entrances.
I reached out with a trembling hand and lifted the heavy receiver to my ear.
"Hello?" I whispered into the static-heavy line.
A woman’s voice answered. It was soft, breathless, and carried a faint, tragic tremble that I recognized instantly from the darkest corners of my childhood memories.
"Ava... my sweet girl..."
"Mom?" The word tore from my throat, raw and full of twenty years of unhealed grief. "Mom, is that really you? Where are you?"
Static hissed through the speaker, followed by the faint sound of a ventilator pumping in the background.
"Listen to me very carefully, Ava," my mother’s voice whispered, urgency cutting through the weakness in her tone. "You cannot trust Lucas. He isn't trying to save Ethan. He’s working with Senator Collins."
"What?" I gasped, looking up at Lucas, who was watching me with an unreadable expression.
"The fire... Lucas didn't try to save you that night," she continued, her voice breaking. "He started it. He was trying to burn the ledger so Collins would pay him his freedom. Don't give him the key, Ava! Go to the abandoned church on St. Jude’s Lane in Brooklyn. The real evidence is—"
A harsh, metallic snap cut off her sentence.
Line dead.
I stood there holding the cold plastic receiver, my brain completely overwhelmed by conflicting truths, betrayals, and lies.
"What did she say?" Lucas asked, taking a step toward me.
Before I could answer, the glass windows along the front foyer suddenly shattered inward with explosive force!
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Flashbang grenades bounced across the concrete floor, detonating with blinding white light and deafening booms. Armed men in unmarked tactical gear burst through the doors, opening fire with suppressed weapons.
"Ambush!" Lena roared, returning fire as she tackled me behind the concrete reception desk!
