Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN IN THE SECURITY FOOTAGESofia had spent twelve years mourning her mother.
She remembered the funeral.
The closed coffin.
The rain striking the church windows.
Victor's hand resting on her shoulder while the minister spoke about tragic accidents and lives cut short.
She remembered asking why she couldn't see her mother's face one last time.
Victor had told her the injuries were too severe.
She had been seventeen.
Old enough to understand death.
Too young to recognize a carefully constructed lie.
Now Julien was telling her that Claire Varenne had survived.
And that she might have been inside the very hospital where Sofia worked.
“That's impossible,” Sofia whispered.
Julien looked at her with exhausted tenderness.
“I know how impossible it sounds.”
“Then prove it.”
He swallowed.
“Three weeks ago, Claire came to the place where I was hiding. She told me she had found a way to expose Meridian. She was frightened, but she was determined.”
“Where was she hiding?”
“She wouldn't tell me. She said knowing would put me in danger.”
Sofia stared at him.
“You expect me to believe she stayed away from her own daughter for twelve years?”
Julien's eyes glistened.
“No. I expect you to hate us for it.”
A key turned in the lock.
Sofia's training took over.
She pressed the emergency call button beside the bed.
Within seconds, a nurse's voice came through the intercom.
“Room 207, do you need assistance?”
“Patient experiencing acute distress,” Sofia replied. “I need the charge nurse and attending physician immediately.”
The door opened.
Victor stood in the doorway.
He wore a charcoal coat and a pale blue shirt.
His silver hair was neatly combed.
He looked like the same respectable man who had attended Sofia's graduation, helped her buy her first car, and sat beside her when she cried over her mother's grave.
But his eyes went straight to Julien.
Then to Sofia.
“Is everything all right?”
Sofia stepped between him and the bed.
“His blood pressure is unstable. You need to leave.”
Victor studied her face.
For a terrible second, she thought he knew.
Then he smiled.
“Of course. Whatever the doctors think is best.”
The charge nurse arrived with Dr. Marcus Reed.
Victor stepped aside.
Sofia felt a wave of relief.
It lasted only until Victor leaned close enough to whisper.
“You look pale, sweetheart. You haven't heard anything upsetting, have you?”
Sofia forced herself to meet his eyes.
“Just a difficult morning.”
Victor smiled again.
“Then come see me when you're finished.”
He walked away.
Only when his footsteps faded did Sofia realize she had been holding her breath.
Dr. Reed examined Julien.
The patient had suffered dehydration, a head injury, and signs of prolonged malnutrition.
His blood pressure was dangerously low.
Sofia asked whether the injury could have been caused by an assault.
Dr. Reed glanced at the bruising along Julien's ribs.
“It's possible. But we need imaging and a full assessment.”
Sofia wanted to tell him everything.
Instead, she said only:
“Please don't allow visitors without checking with me or the charge nurse.”
Dr. Reed frowned.
“Is there a safety concern?”
“Yes.”
He studied her.
Then nodded.
“I'll document it.”
By 10:25 a.m., Julien had been taken for additional imaging.
Sofia used the time to visit the hospital's security office.
The supervisor, Daniel Price, had worked at St. Catherine's for nearly fifteen years.
He knew Sofia well.
“What's going on?” he asked when she entered.
“I need to see footage from the employee entrance.”
“When?”
“Three weeks ago. Any woman who looks like my mother.”
Daniel raised an eyebrow.
“Your mother?”
Sofia placed an old photograph on his desk.
Claire stood outside their family home, smiling into the sunlight.
Her dark hair fell over one shoulder.
Her eyes were identical to Sofia's.
Daniel studied the picture.
Then his expression changed.
“Where did you get this?”
“It's my mother.”
He looked toward the closed office door.
“Sofia, I need you to understand something.”
“What?”
“I've seen that woman.”
Sofia's pulse raced.
“When?”
“Not three weeks ago.”
He turned toward his computer.
“Yesterday.”
The footage showed the hospital's rear loading entrance at 11:43 p.m.
A woman wearing dark blue scrubs approached the security door.
She was older than the woman in Sofia's photograph.
Her hair had streaks of gray.
Her shoulders were slightly stooped.
But Sofia recognized her immediately.
The way she walked.
The way she tilted her head.
The familiar gesture of pushing loose hair behind her ear.
“Mom,” Sofia whispered.
The woman stopped beneath the camera.
She looked directly into the lens.
Then she lifted a folded piece of paper.
On it were four handwritten words.
SOFIA, TRUST THE DOGS.
Daniel paused the recording.
Sofia gripped the edge of his desk.
“Where did she go?”
Daniel opened another camera feed.
The woman entered a service corridor.
At 11:47 p.m., she disappeared through a door marked MAINTENANCE ACCESS.
No footage showed her leaving.
Sofia turned toward Daniel.
“Can you find her?”
He hesitated.
“Sofia, there's something else.”
He opened the hospital access log.
The woman's employee badge had been registered under a false name.
Evelyn Hart.
But the photograph attached to the badge was unmistakable.
Claire Varenne.
And according to the system, Evelyn Hart had been assigned to one specific department.
The hospital's long-closed underground research wing.
Daniel looked at Sofia.
“That department was shut down twelve years ago.”
Sofia stared at the screen.
Twelve years.
The exact number of years since her mother's supposed death.
Then Daniel clicked another record.
His face drained of color.
“Sofia.”
“What?”
He turned the monitor toward her.
The access log showed that Evelyn Hart's badge had been used again.
At 10:19 a.m.
May you like
Six minutes earlier.
Inside Room 207.
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