Marcus entered my office without knocking.

He looked as if he hadn’t slept.

In his hand was a brown evidence envelope.

“Mara, I need you to see this.”

“I’m working.”

“Please.”

That word made me look up.

Marcus had never been good at begging.

He placed six photographs on my desk.

They were from the kidnapping scene.

I recognized the warehouse immediately.

Then I saw Celeste.

In the first photograph, she was tied to the chair.

In the second, one wrist was already free.

In the third, the door behind her was open.

I stopped breathing.

“She could have escaped.”

“Yes.”

“Then why didn’t she?”

Marcus placed another photograph down.

Celeste wasn’t looking toward the exit.

She was looking directly at the kidnapper.

And he was looking back.

Not like strangers.

Like people waiting for something.

“Where did you get these?”

“The original evidence archive.”

Marcus’s voice became colder.

“The photographs in my case file were cropped.”

I looked at him.

“By whom?”

“We’re investigating.”

I pushed the photographs away.

“That doesn’t change your choice.”

“I know.”

His answer surprised me.

Marcus didn’t defend himself.

He didn’t say he had been confused.

He didn’t ask me to understand.

“I chose Celeste,” he said. “And you paid for that decision.”

My left hand tightened.

“For five years, I hated you for leaving.”

He swallowed.

“Now I understand why you did.”

Silence stretched between us.

Then I asked the question I had been avoiding.

“Is her baby yours?”

Marcus stared at me.

“No.”

I almost laughed.

“Everyone says it is.”

“Celeste says it is.”

That made me pause.

“And you’re saying she’s lying?”

Marcus removed his phone.

There were dozens of messages from Celeste.

You owe me.

After everything that happened, you can’t abandon me now.

Then one message sent only three days earlier:

If Mara comes back, everything we did was for nothing.

I read it twice.

“We?”

“That’s what I’m trying to find out.”

Before I could respond, someone knocked.

Sophie entered, pale.

“Dr. Reyes, there’s a woman asking for you.”

“Who?”

Sophie looked at Marcus.

“Celeste Ye.”

Minutes later, Celeste walked into my office.

Pregnancy had softened her face, but I recognized her immediately.

She looked at my prosthetic arm.

Then quickly away.

“Mara.”

“Celeste.”

Marcus stepped forward.

“What are you doing here?”

She ignored him.

“I came to apologize.”

I stared at her.

“For what?”

Her eyes filled with tears.

“For staying in that warehouse.”

Marcus went completely still.

Celeste pressed both hands over her stomach.

“I could have escaped.”

“I know.”

Her face changed.

“You know?”

I pointed toward the photographs.

Whatever speech she had prepared disappeared.

Then Marcus asked quietly:

“Why did you stay?”

Celeste looked at him.

And finally said:

“Because the kidnapping wasn’t supposed to happen that way.”

Silence.

I felt something cold move through me.

“What does that mean?”

She started crying.

“I was supposed to be taken alone.”

Marcus stepped closer.

“Who arranged it?”

Celeste shook her head.

“I can’t tell you.”

“Five years ago my wife lost her arm because of that night.”

His voice cracked.

“You’re going to tell me everything.”

Celeste looked at me.

Then at my prosthesis.

“I never wanted Mara hurt.”

“Then who did?”

She whispered one name.

I knew it.

Marcus knew it too.

His former commanding officer.

The man who had personally closed the kidnapping investigation five years ago.

Before Marcus could speak, Celeste suddenly placed an ultrasound photograph on my desk.

“There’s something else.”

Marcus didn’t touch it.

“I already told you. That child isn’t mine.”

“I know.”

He froze.

I stared at her.

Celeste wiped her tears.

“I never said you were the father.”

“Yes, you did.”

“No.”

She shook her head.

“I let everyone assume you were because I needed protection.”

“Protection from whom?”

Celeste looked toward the closed office door.

Then she whispered:

“From the baby’s real father.”

She turned the ultrasound photograph over.

A name had been written on the back.

Marcus read it.

His face changed completely.

Because the father of Celeste’s unborn child was the same man who had controlled the kidnapping investigation five years earlier.

And according to official records—

he had died three months ago.