41. Sienna
Sienna
T hey don’t prepare me for it.
No warning.
No explanation.
Cal just hits play.
The monitor flickers once.
Then suddenly—
Elizabeth.
My knees nearly give out instantly.
“No…”
The whisper barely leaves my throat.
She’s older now.
Thinner.
Dark circles beneath her eyes.
But alive.
God.
Alive.
She sits beneath a single hanging light in what appears to be a concrete holding room.
Hands bound in front of her.
Shoulders tense.
Trying not to look afraid.
My chest caves inward so violently I physically stagger toward the desk.
“Sienna.”
Her voice breaks something inside me instantly.
Not simulated.
Not ORACLE.
Her.
Real.
“If you’re seeing this…”
She swallows hard and tries to straighten slightly in the chair.
“They said you would.”
My hands start shaking so badly I grip the edge of the table just to stay standing.
Tears blur my vision almost immediately.
“They said you’d come for me.”
God.
Elizabeth.
Her voice trembles despite how hard she fights it.
But she’s still trying to protect me even now.
Still trying to be brave for me.
“I know you will.”
The camera shifts slightly.
Barely enough to notice.
But I catch it.
Someone else is in the room.
Watching her.
Controlling this.
My pulse spikes violently.
“I’m okay,” Elizabeth says softly.
Lie.
I know every version of her lies.
That one almost destroys me.
Because she’s scared.
And trying desperately not to let me hear it.
“I just…”
Her voice catches.
Then steadies again.
“I need you to be careful.”
That’s when I know beyond doubt this is real.
Because ORACLE would’ve made her beg.
Manipulate.
Pressure me.
But Elizabeth?
Elizabeth’s first instinct has always been protecting everyone else before herself.
Even now.
Even here.
“I miss you,” she whispers.
And just like that—
I break.
The video cuts to black.
Silence crashes across the ops room afterward.
Nobody moves.
Nobody speaks.
Because everyone here understands exactly what we just saw.
Not bait.
Not a bluff.
Leverage.
Real.
A tear slips down my face.
Then another.
I don’t wipe them away.
I can’t.
Because after four years of forcing myself not to hope—
I finally know my sister is alive.
And somehow that hurts even worse.