"I told him what I could prove at that moment," Foley replied, but there was no pride in the answer. "I should have said I had reason for hope. I was trying to avoid exposing her to the wrong people, and I made a decision that hurt him." He met Rhett's gaze. "The message is genuine. She's alive."
The word moved through the room with a force no one could disguise. Mara gripped the edge of the table. Deak lowered himself into a chair as though his knees had suddenly remembered their age. Rhett stared at Foley until the man continued, because alive was not the same as safe, and the difference mattered more than anything else in the world to the child upstairs.
"She's inside one of Hale's facilities," Foley said. "She arranged temporary work through a legitimate staffing contractor and entered the operation six weeks ago. She has been collecting evidence from its transport office. The message says her access may have been compromised and the shipment schedule is changing."
He unfolded a map with one location circled. "She's here. Or she was when the message went out."
"She infiltrated a trafficking operation by herself," Mara said. It was neither admiration nor condemnation, merely astonishment at the risk Norah had accepted. Foley gave a tired nod. "She was determined to finish what Caleb started. I warned her not to do it, but she stopped asking permission long before we met."
"And her son?" Rhett demanded. "Did she know he was living on the street?" Foley shook his head.
"Not until I traced his movements this week. I sent that information in my reply. Her answer was one sentence: Tell Eli that the number his father gave him was meant to open a door, not close one."
Mara went upstairs herself. She sat beside Eli's bed and told him that Foley had received a verified message from his mother. Eli listened without moving, his eyes fixed on Mara's face as though any flicker there might expose the lie he feared most. When she said Norah was alive but still in danger, his shoulders began to shake without sound. She stayed close enough for him to reach toward her if he wanted and far enough not to make the choice for him.
After a long time, Eli asked, "Does she know I came here?" Mara nodded. "Foley told her. She knows you're with Rhett."
He looked at the watch on his wrist and breathed out slowly. "Then she's going to try to come," he whispered. "She always comes back when she knows where I am."
Rhett joined them and repeated Norah's message exactly, including the part about the memorized code. Eli listened and gave the first unguarded smile Rhett had seen from him. It was small and quickly gone, but it transformed his face enough that Rhett saw the child Caleb had been trying to protect. "Dad told me something like that," Eli said. "He said a locked door isn't always the same as a closed one."