Chapter 7 - Every sound in the room seemed to disappear.Maya slowly looked at me.
The detective looked at me too.
“That's a setup,” I said.
Maya didn't answer.
The phone buzzed again.
SHE'S BEEN LYING TO YOU.
“Maya,” I said.
She stepped backward.
“Mom?”
“What?”
“Why would someone say that?”
“I don't know.”
The detective picked up the phone.
A video automatically played.
It showed me.
Walking into Principal Harris's office three months earlier.
I had never been there.
At least I didn't remember being there.
The video continued.
I was sitting across from Principal Harris.
He placed a folder on the desk.
Then I heard my own voice.
“We need to make sure Maya never finds out.”
I felt as if someone had punched me.
“That isn't me.”
Maya stared at the screen.
The detective replayed it.
The face was mine.
The voice was mine.
But I knew I had never said those words.
“Deepfake,” I whispered.
The detective nodded.
“Probably.”
“Probably?”
“Maya's being manipulated.”
The phone buzzed.
A new message.
COME TO THE OLD FOOTBALL FIELD. ALONE.
Then another.
BRING YOUR MOTHER.
I looked at Maya.
“We go together.”
She nodded.
Police surrounded the field.
But there was nobody there.
Only a wooden bench.
And a backpack.
Maya recognized it instantly.
“Sophie's.”
Inside was a notebook.
The first pages were ordinary.
Practice schedules.
School assignments.
Then the entries became darker.
Names.
Dates.
Payments.
Every time a student received a threat.
Every time a student disappeared from the team.
Every time a girl transferred schools.
At the final page was a list.
Five names were crossed out.
Maya's name was at the bottom.
Beside it was a date.
Tomorrow.
I couldn't breathe.
“What happens tomorrow?”
Maya looked at the notebook.
“I don't know.”
A noise came from the bleachers.
The officers ran toward it.
A man emerged.
Coach Reed.
His face was bruised.
One arm was bleeding.
He raised both hands.
“Don't shoot!”
The detective approached.
“Where is Sophie?”
Coach Reed looked directly at Maya.
“You need to listen carefully.”
“Where is she?”
“I didn't take her.”
Maya began crying.
“Then who did?”
Coach Reed glanced around.
“The people I was trying to stop.”
“You expect us to believe you?”
“I don't care what you believe.”
He pulled a small memory card from his pocket.
“Emily found this.”
“What is it?”
“Proof.”
“Proof of what?”
His eyes moved toward Maya.
“That Sophie was never the target.”
Silence.
“Then who was?”
Coach Reed whispered:
“Maya.”
My daughter stopped breathing.
“What?”
“Sophie was trying to protect you.”
“From who?”
Coach Reed hesitated.
“From the person who has been choosing your family for sixteen years.”
I felt dizzy.
“My family?”
He nodded.
“Your husband.”
I stared at him.
“My husband died six years ago.”
“I know.”
“He was a doctor.”
“I know.”
“He had nothing to do with this.”
Coach Reed looked at me with pity.
“That is what everyone believed.”
The detective stepped forward.
“Explain.”
Coach Reed swallowed.
“Your husband discovered the fraud.”
My mouth went dry.
“He was investigating the district.”
“What happened to him?”
“He was silenced.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“Maya's father wasn't killed in an accident.”
The world seemed to stop.
“What did you say?”
Coach Reed looked toward Maya.
“He was murdered.”
Maya screamed.
I couldn't move.
Then Coach Reed said the words that destroyed everything I thought I knew.
“And the person who ordered it still works inside your school district.”
A gunshot cracked across the football field.
Coach Reed fell.
Maya screamed.
The officers dragged us behind cover.
A second shot struck the bench.
Then silence.
The shooter was gone.
Coach Reed was alive.
Barely.
The memory card had disappeared.
But something else remained on the ground.
A black ring.
Silver line across it.
The symbol of the Keeper.
The detective picked it up.
Then looked at me.
“Mrs. Carter...”
“What?”
He stared at the ring.
“This isn't the same ring we've seen before.”
I looked at him.
“Then whose is it?”
He turned it over.
Inside was an inscription.
Two initials.
May you like
R.C.
My husband's initials.
