Chapter 9 - THE CHOICE SHE WANTED
Sylvia gave me three hours.
Rebecca Sloan forbade direct negotiation.
Federal agents traced the video through six international servers and found nothing.
Rebecca Mitchell knew Sanctuary’s underground layout.
She drew tunnels, medical rooms, and an old mining shaft used as an emergency exit.
She had lived there as a teenager after accusing Aaron of assaulting a patient.
Sylvia called it treatment.
They locked Rebecca underground for eight months.
She escaped after convincing Charles Wynn she had been conditioned.
Now she wanted to enter with agents.
I wanted to go too.
Dr. Reed refused.
“You are carrying two high-risk babies.”
“I have two daughters inside.”
“And four daughters who need you alive.”
Four.
Lucy.
Ella.
The two inside me.
The number steadied me.
I recorded a reply for Sylvia.
“I will not choose between my children.”
Her response came within minutes.
“Then I will choose for you.”
The video showed her raising the silver cup toward Lucy’s mouth.
Ella slapped it away.
Liquid spilled across the floor.
Sylvia struck Ella across the face.
Lucy screamed.
The feed ended.
Federal agents identified a geological feature visible through a window reflection.
Sanctuary was located near an abandoned silver mine outside Ouray, Colorado.
Teams launched.
I remained in the hospital command center with Dr. Reed and Priya.
Aaron was transported under guard to provide access codes.
Halfway there, the prison vehicle was attacked.
Aaron escaped.
Investigators suspected Sylvia’s network.
Rebecca Mitchell suspected Aaron arranged it himself.
At Sanctuary, agents entered through the mining shaft.
They found Lucy and Ella’s room empty.
A silver cup lay on the bed.
The underground medical suite remained warm.
Sylvia had moved minutes earlier.
Then Rebecca discovered a hidden child’s drawing behind a cabinet.
It showed a red barn, a river, and a tower.
Ella had left clues.
Dr. Reed recognized the tower.
It belonged to Saint Agnes Maternity Hospital, abandoned after a fire eighteen years earlier.
The hospital where Aaron trained.
May you like
The hospital where Rebecca first accused him.
And the hospital where Sylvia’s own daughter had supposedly died.
