Page 27 of Tag (The Golden Team #9)

Aponi

I didn’t remember our walls ever being so white.

Sterile. Safe. Painted with peace and soft music. The kind of place designed to look like hope for the broken.

It made my skin crawl.

The receptionist led us down a hallway lined with motivational quotes and photos of smiling volunteers. None of them looked like her.

“She’s in the back office,” the woman said cheerfully. “Should I let her know you’re coming?”

“No,” I said, and opened the door myself.

The woman sitting behind the desk looked up, startled.

Then went still.

Her face—older, lined, sharper than I remembered—froze as her gaze moved from me… to Faron.

And just like that, twenty years of silence were shattered.

“I was wondering how long it would take,” she said softly.

I blinked.

No tears.

No apologies.

Just… that.

Faron stepped inside first. “So it’s true.”

Her lips parted like she might lie—but she didn’t. “Yes. It’s me.”

I followed, my legs somehow still working even though my entire body felt like a live wire.

“You left us,” I said.

“I tried to protect you.”

“Bullshit,” Faron snapped. “You abandoned us. You faked your own death and left my sister alone to fend for herself, and this is what you are.”

She looked at him then, and for just a second— just a second —her face cracked.

“You were better off with your father. I tried taking care of Aponi. I left her to keep her safe.”

“You should have left her with us. At least she would have known she was loved.”

“I had no choice,” she said.

“You had two kids ,” I said, my voice rising. “And you chose this over us?”

“I chose to fight,” she said. “To infiltrate. To stop it from the inside. If they knew I had children, they’d have killed you both.”

I stared at her. “You expect us to believe you joined a trafficking ring to take it down? From a shelter?”

She stood slowly. “Not joined. I fed them enough information to stay alive. I watched girls disappear because if I screamed, it would’ve been you instead.”

Faron’s voice dropped low. “You let our hearts suffer.”

“I stayed hidden,” she said, eyes wet now. “And every damn day it killed me. But I never stopped watching. I made sure you survived. Ask Malik. Ask anyone.”

“You know we would’ve taken the risk,” I whispered. “You were my mother. I was so scared.”

Her shoulders slumped. “I know.”

Silence thickened the air.

Then she looked at me. “You’re everything I hoped you’d be.”

“I’m not here for your pride,” I said coldly. “I’m here for the truth.”

She nodded. Walked slowly to a locked filing cabinet and opened the bottom drawer.

Pulled out a flash drive. Set it on the desk.

“Everything,” she said. “Names. Financials. Contacts. Even the buyers. You take this, and you burn them all down.”

Faron stepped forward. “Why now?”

She looked at him—really looked. “Because I’m tired. Because I never stopped loving you. And because the people I tried to stop? They’re finally coming for me.”

The lights flickered.

The receptionist’s voice echoed down the hall.

“Ma’am? There’s a black van pulling up fast outside—”

Gunfire.

Glass shattered.

Tag’s voice roared from the hallway. “Down!”

I dove for my mother just as the window behind her exploded.

Faron covered us both, drawing his weapon.

And all I could think was—

We just found her.

And we might lose her all over again.