13. Luca #3
Luther stands near the fireplace with his arms folded, but he doesn’t interrupt. “Did she think anyone followed her?”
“She doesn’t know. She changed transportation twice and spent one night in a shelter before the advocate contacted us.”
“We’ll review the external cameras and adjust arrivals until we know more,” he says. “Nothing that changes how residents move inside the house.”
Maceo looks toward me. “Her consent limits stay attached to every copy. No one removes the cover sheet, even if Wilson gives the summary to Thane.”
Wilson nods. “I’ll use the terminology to search existing records. I won’t identify her as the source.”
Blake turns one page carefully. “What would investigators need before they could search for other sites without putting her in the middle of it?”
“Financial transfers, lease records, staffing overlaps, or another survivor account that independently confirms the same sequence,” Wilson says. “Her description gives us a method to search for. It isn’t enough on its own to support action against a specific location.”
“That’s enough for tonight,” I say. “She agreed to comparison, not for us to build a case around her before she’s had a full day to breathe.”
No one argues.
Grayson comes downstairs while Wilson is describing the public-facing services most likely to conceal a placement program. Samuel’s voice follows him from the landing, asking whether he can have water for the third time.
“You already have water, baby,” Grayson calls back.
“I drank it.”
“Then take the cup to the bathroom and fill it halfway.”
Samuel disappears again, and Grayson joins us near the sofa. He listens while I summarize only what Philomena permitted us to share.
“What does Ember House need immediately?” he asks when I finish.
“Staff awareness without details,” I say. “No one discusses new residents in common areas, and no one answers questions outside assigned files.”
“Do we change Josie’s access?” Luther asks.
The question pulls everyone’s attention toward me.
I tell them exactly what she asked that morning and repeat the phrases she used. Maceo doesn’t decide what they mean. He asks me to preserve the incident log and confirms that the file she carried doesn’t contain the information she mentioned.
Blake’s hand tightens once over my knee. “Check the access records before changing anything. If she knows we noticed, she may stop showing us where she’s looking.”
“I don’t know what she understood when she watched me speak with Philomena,” I say. “I only know her question this morning wasn’t routine.”
Wilson closes the folder. “Then we treat it as a lead, not a conclusion.”
By the time the meeting ends, we have only three immediate actions.
Wilson will search for the terminology in old contracts and current public records.
Maceo will preserve Josie’s access logs without alerting her.
Luther and Grayson will review Ember House’s arrival procedures with Blossom without restricting residents or making the building feel watched.
Wilson leaves with the anonymized summary locked inside his case. Maceo carries the original notes into the office.
Blake rises to take his glass into the kitchen, then stops with one hand against the back of the sofa. The color drains from his face.
Grayson reaches him first and takes the glass before it slips. “What’s wrong?”
Blake breathes carefully through his nose while Luther pulls the nearest chair away from the table. “My stomach. Dinner didn’t agree with me.”
“Sit down, baby,” Grayson says, one hand settling at the back of Blake’s neck. “Don’t try to walk it off.”
Blake lowers himself into the chair, irritated by the attention but too nauseated to refuse it. Luther brings him water while Grayson crouches beside him and asks whether the pain is sharp, whether he’s dizzy, and whether anything else feels wrong.
Blake answers quietly, insists it’s only nausea, and closes his eyes while Grayson presses cool fingers to his wrist.
I remain near the coffee table with one hand resting against the back of the sofa.
Concern for Blake pulls at me, but Philomena’s account is still louder than everything around it.
Somewhere beyond Ember House, another Omega may be sitting in a room while someone decides whether freezing makes them easier to place.
By the time Blake says the nausea is easing, the moment has folded into everything else the day uncovered.
Maceo returns from the office after securing Philomena’s notes and sits beside me. His hand settles against the back of my neck while Grayson stays with Blake in the kitchen and Luther checks the locks downstairs.
Six weeks ago, we were following money and legal structures left behind after Ward’s operation was exposed. Tonight, we have the account of a woman placed through the same stages, bound by the same kind of debt, and taught to call buyers donors.
The method is active.
I still don’t know who rebuilt it, what Josie knows, or how many Omegas remain inside it.
I know where we begin.
Tomorrow, I’ll return to Philomena and ask what she needs before anyone asks her for more.