Chapter 9 - The lie Nicole had not told me
I moved away from Nicole.
She didn’t stop me.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
“Rachel.”
“What.”
“I met your mother more than once.”
“How many?”
“Six.”
“You said one diner.”
“I lied.”
“Why?”
“Because Laura told me never to tell you everything unless she was there.”
“She isn’t.”
“I know.”
“You had plenty of time.”
Nicole closed her eyes.
Then started talking.
My mother had not simply received the Carroway evidence.
She had been investigating the company herself.
Before her supposed death, Laura worked as a quality-control engineer for a Carroway supplier.
She discovered defective medical components being quietly diverted into government-contract shipments.
When she attempted to report it, someone sabotaged her car.
She survived.
The public was told she died.
Why?
Because federal investigators believed leaving Laura “dead” could protect her while they traced the network.
I stared.
“Federal investigators?”
“At first.”
“At first?”
Nicole looked ashamed.
“The investigation leaked.”
Someone inside government warned Carroway.
Witnesses vanished.
Laura stopped trusting anyone.
Including official channels.
“So she abandoned me?”
“No.”
“She let me bury her!”
“She thought you would be killed if they knew she was alive.”
“Ten years.”
“I know.”
“She never contacted me.”
Nicole’s expression broke.
“She did.”
I froze.
“What?”
“Letters.”
“Never got them.”
“She stopped after the first three disappeared.”
Who intercepted them?
Derek?
No.
He entered my life only four years ago.
Someone else.
Then Nicole admitted the part my mother warned me about.
Nicole had once worked for Margaret voluntarily.
Not merely as an auditor.
She helped design some of the shell-company compliance structures before realizing what they concealed.
“You were part of it.”
“Yes.”
“How much?”
“Too much.”
“Did people get hurt because of you?”
She looked down.
“I don’t know.”
Wrong answer.
The most honest answer.
Then another sheet printed.
Laura again.
Nicole helped build the system. She also helped me break it. Decide for yourself what that means.
I stared at Nicole.
Not innocent.
Not pure villain.
Useful truth.
Then the intercom crackled.
Derek’s voice.
He had reached another control station.
“Rachel.”
Static.
“You want to know why your mother never came home?”
I stopped.
Nicole whispered:
“Don’t listen.”
Derek laughed.
“She could have.”
My hand shook.
“She chose the investigation.”
“Shut up.”
“She chose Carroway over you.”
“SHUT UP!”
He finally found the wound deep enough.
Then the intercom clicked again.
Another voice replaced his.
Female.
My mother.
“Rachel?”
I stopped breathing.
“Mom?”
Her voice broke.
“Oh God, baby.”
May you like
Then:
“Listen to me carefully. Margaret is coming to the factory.”
