"Step back, Doctor. We have him. It's over."
They drag him toward the door. He doesn't struggle. He walks with a hollow, robotic gait, his head turned back toward me until the very last moment. That look of absolute hurt is burned into my retinas, a masterpiece of pain that I created with my own hands.
The room is suddenly full of people, radios, and shouting, but to me, it is as silent as a grave. I am alone on the floor of my office, knowing that I saved Lucy’s life, but I liquidated the only soul that ever truly belonged to me.
Sterling grabs my shoulder, his grip firm and triumphant.
"We got him, Madeline. After all these years, we finally have him. You did the right thing. You’re a hero."
The word makes me want to vomit. I stare at the spot on the floor where Deimos was just pinned down. The cold linoleum is still smeared from his coat.
Lucy. I know Deimos. He doesn't leave logs. He doesn't use phones that can be traced by a precinct. If I want to find Lucy, I have to use the only thing he actually gave me, his trust, even if I shattered it.
I shove Sterling’s hand off me and stumble back toward my desk.
"I need... I need a moment. I'm going to be sick."
"Take your time, Doctor. You’ve been through hell," Sterling says, his tone softening with a pity that infuriates me. He leaves the office to coordinate the transport, leaving me alone.
The second the door closes, I collapse into my chair. My body is shaking so violently I can barely breathe. The silence of the office is deafening. I look at my hands. The hands that held him, the hands that sent him behind bars.
I am absolutely broken.
I feel like a traitor to my own heart. I saved Lucy, but at what cost? I turned the man who looked at me with a spark of hope into a caged animal. I gave him back to the system that designed him to be a monster in the first place.
I reach into my pocket and pull out the silver key he left me before. My eyes blur with fresh tears as I stare at it.
"Where is she, Deimos?"
I whisper, a sob catching in my throat.
"Where did you put her?"
Then, I notice it.
On the underside of the silver key, there is something I didn't see before. A tiny, laser-etched string of numbers. Not a GPS coordinate. A timestamp and a frequency.
He knew.
He knew I might betray him. Or maybe he hoped I wouldn't, and this was his way of letting me into his world for good. Even when he kidnapped Lucy, he wanted me to find her, if something went wrong.
Either way, the information isn't for the police. It is for me. I wipe my eyes, my grief shifting into a cold determination. I won't tell Sterling. I won't tell anyone. I am going to find Lucy on my own, using the map of a broken man carved into a key.
I force my breathing into a shallow rhythm and rub my eyes until they are red and raw. I let my hair fall over my face in a tangled mess. I need to look like a woman whose world has just collapsed, because it has, but for a very different reason than they think.
I stumble out of my office and into the brightly lit hallway. The sight of the officers milling around, congratulating each other on the "big catch," makes my stomach churn.
"Sterling!"
I choke out, my voice thin and trembling.
The detective turns from a group of officers, his expression instantly shifting from triumph to concern. He rushes over to me, catching me by the elbows as I pretend to sway. He’s so blinded by the victory that he looks like he forgot about the fact that he knew about me having a “shadow.”
"Madeline? Hey, easy. It's okay," he says, his voice low and fatherly.
"I... I can't stay here," I sob, leaning my weight into him just enough to sell the act.
"The smell... the lights... I keep seeing his eyes. Please."
