Chapter 66

Chapter 66 — Nell’s POV

The car slowed as we turned onto my street, the familiar houses lined up like quiet sentinels watching me come home.

I sat frozen in the backseat, staring out the window at the place I used to call normal. Everything looked the same — the cracked driveway, the sagging mailbox, the overgrown hedges that Chris never remembered to trim. And yet, everything inside me felt completely foreign.

Alex sat beside me, silent, calm. His phone buzzed in his lap for the fifth time that morning. He’d ignored each call without checking who it was.

A man in a dark suit opened the car door before the engine even stopped. One of Alex’s guards. Polite but unreadable.

“Ma’am,” he said, offering a hand.

I hesitated. The last time I was here, I wasn’t this girl. I wasn’t the girl who had survived being hunted, experimented on, and half-erased.

I stepped out anyway.

The wind was cool. The sun too bright. A few curious eyes peeked from the neighbor’s blinds as the sleek black car parked in front of our modest home. I didn’t blame them. A car like that didn’t belong here. Neither did Alex, with his quiet power and sharp composure.

And right now… I wasn’t sure if I did either.

Alex stepped out behind me, his presence calm, steady, unshaken. He adjusted the sleeves of his coat and gave a small nod to the second man standing at the edge of the yard.

“Five-minute sweep,” Alex said quietly. “Don’t spook anyone.”

“Yes, sir.”

Even now — back home, surrounded by childhood memories — I couldn’t forget the world I’d come from. The one I’d been dragged into. The one that changed everything.

\---

Before I could knock, the door flung open.

My mother stood there, her face pale, her eyes wild.

“Nell?”

She blinked, stunned. Then gasped. “Nell!”

She didn’t wait for me to say a word.

She pulled me into her arms with a sob so sudden and broken that I nearly collapsed.

“I told Lena we couldn’t wait anymore,” she cried, gripping the back of my head. “We were going to the station today. We were going, Nell. I couldn’t take it. I couldn’t take not knowing anymore.”

“I’m here,” I whispered, but my voice cracked in my throat.

She didn’t let go.

I didn’t want her to.

Behind us, the screen door creaked open. My father stood just inside, leaning against the doorway, arms crossed. His face was unreadable.

He didn’t move toward me. Didn’t say my name.

His eyes landed on Alex, who remained a few steps back, quietly observant.

There was tension in my dad’s jaw. A muscle twitching near his temple.

“We need to talk,” he said flatly. “All of us.”

\---

Inside, the house felt… smaller.

Not in size, but in spirit.

The walls still held my family pictures, the dusty frames and childhood drawings. But there was a heaviness now. A silence beneath the welcome.

Chris was the first to break it.

He ran down the stairs and crashed into me like a freight train.

“Nell!”

He hugged me tight, small arms around my waist. “You’re okay! I knew it. I told them you weren’t gone. I knew it.”

I smiled through the lump in my throat. “I missed you, buddy.”

“Why didn’t you call? Or text?” he asked. “Even Mom and Dad thought—”

“Chris,” my father interrupted sharply.

Chris shrank a little, his eyes darting between us.

“I-it’s okay,” I said softly, brushing his hair back. “We’ll talk later, okay?”

He nodded, sniffling. “You look different.”

“Yeah,” I whispered. “So do you.”

\---

They led me to the living room.

My mom hovered close, like she was afraid I’d disappear again. My dad walked behind us slowly, his expression unreadable.

Alex stayed near the front hallway. He didn’t speak unless spoken to. But his presence was a wall at my back, quiet and powerful. A grounding weight.

My mom sat beside me on the couch, her hand still gripping mine tightly.

My dad remained standing, arms crossed. His eyes moved from me to Alex, then back again.

“You brought her home?” he asked.

Alex met his stare without flinching. “Yes.”

“Why?”

“I owed it to her.”

My father didn’t respond. He looked at me instead.

“You disappeared. For nearly a month. And we weren’t allowed to tell anyone. Do you have any idea what that felt like?”

I said nothing.

“You don’t have to explain it,” my mom cut in, her voice trembling. “We know what happened, Nell. We—”

She stopped.

Her eyes flicked to my father. He didn’t look at her.

“I remember everything,” she said more quietly. “The forms. The contract. The man who came to our door years ago and promised us you’d be okay.”

My father’s mouth tightened.

“You both signed it,” I said softly.

Mom’s voice cracked. “He said it would help you sleep. That it would calm your mind. We didn’t know they’d—”

“You didn’t know,” I repeated. “But you agreed.”

Silence.

“I didn’t have a choice,” my dad muttered finally. “We were drowning. The bills, the debt… they offered a way out.”

“So you sold me?” My voice shook more than I meant it to.

“No one forced anything on you!” he snapped. “You were a child. We made a choice.”

“A choice that wrecked me,” I said. “A choice that almost got me killed.”

“I did what I had to do to keep this family afloat,” he said coldly. “I signed because we were desperate. Your mother signed because she trusted me.”

I turned to my mom. She had tears in her eyes.

“I thought it was just a trial,” she whispered. “I thought it would help you forget the panic attacks. The nightmares. I didn’t know they’d come back for you now.”

Alex’s voice broke the silence.

“You were never supposed to remember,” he said. “But she did.”

My mom looked at him like she was seeing him for the first time.

“You were part of it too, weren’t you?”

He didn’t answer directly.

“I was involved in the early stages,” he said simply. “But I didn’t know what they’d do to her. I didn’t know who she was. Not really.”

“And now?”

Alex looked at me.

“Now, I do.”

\---

I stood.

The silence in the room had grown thick, suffocating.

Chris had disappeared upstairs, probably too scared to stay.

“I’m tired,” I said quietly.

“You can sleep here,” my mom said quickly. “Your room’s exactly the same—”

“I know. I saw.”

I glanced back at my dad. He hadn’t moved.

His eyes were locked on the carpet, like he couldn’t bring himself to look at me anymore.

Or maybe he didn’t care to.

“I’m not staying,” I said.

“Nell—” my mom began.

“I just needed to see you. To know I could come back.”

Her face fell. “And now you’re leaving again?”

“For now.”

She reached for me, but I stepped back.

“Not yet,” I said gently.

Alex opened the door behind me, waiting.

I walked past my father without a word.

He didn’t stop me.

Didn’t even say goodbye.

And somehow, that hurt more than anything else.

\---

Outside, the guards stood ready.

The car door opened silently.

Alex placed a hand on my back and guided me in without a word.

As the car pulled away, I looked back at the porch.

My mother stood there, arms folded tight around herself.

My father stood in the shadows of the doorway.

Watching.

But never following.