Chapter 4 - The Echoes of a Forgotten Summer
The silence in the gymnasium was absolute, save for the hum of the HVAC system overhead.
Sawyer clutched the tarnished silver locket in his palm, his knuckles turning white. The metal felt cold against his skin, yet it burned like a branding iron. Memories he had buried beneath corporate spreadsheets, millions of dollars, and the agonizing grief of Caroline’s death suddenly surged back with terrifying force.
Twelve years ago. Before Hale Technologies was a multi-billion-dollar empire. Before the crash. Before Caroline.
He remembered a small, sun-drenched coastal town in Oregon, a cramped apartment above a bookstore, and a brilliant, sharp-witted graduate student named Elena who had looked at him not for his money—because he had none then—but for the fire in his mind. They had built code together late into the night, fueled by cheap coffee and impossible dreams.
Then, one morning, she was gone. No note, no forwarding address, no explanation. Just a shattered heart that Sawyer had walled off forever.
“Where is she?” Sawyer’s voice was barely a rasp, his eyes fixed on Lila.
Lila wiped her nose with the sleeve of her oversized T-shirt, her small chin trembling. “She’s in a hospital downtown. In a white room where the lights never turn off. She said her chest was full of glass.”
June let out a fresh sob, burying her face in Lila’s shoulder. “She couldn't breathe, Sawyer. That’s why she left us by the store. She said she had to find the doctor who lived in the big castle on the hill, because he was the only one who had the key.”
Sawyer’s breath hitched. The pieces clicked together with the sickening precision of a clockwork trap.
These weren't just random street children he had rescued out of charity. They were Elena’s daughters. Which meant—
No. He couldn't let his mind go there. He couldn't process the math.
“Robert!” Sawyer shouted, his voice echoing off the high ceilings of the rehabilitation room.
Within seconds, Robert appeared in the doorway, breathless. “Sir?”
“Get the car. Now.”
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“Mr. Hale, it’s past ten o’clock, and the storm outside has turned into—'”
“I don't care if it’s a hurricane,” Sawyer snarled, the billionaire CEO vanishing instantly, replaced by a desperate, panicked man. “We are going to St. Jude’s Memorial Hospital downtown. Right now.”
