Chapter 226

• Third person pov
• How it all started
• The station’s meeting room was cold, its walls a dull shade of gray that seemed to intensify the silence pressing down on everyone seated at the long wooden table. Claire sat stiffly between Nathan and Sebastian, her hands clenched tightly in her lap. The weight of the moment pressed against her chest so heavily that she could scarcely breathe. Across from them, Mr. and Mrs. Ausburg sat in trembling silence, their heads lowered, their faces lined with exhaustion and shame. The sharp hum of the overhead fluorescent light seemed deafening in the stillness, punctuated only by the faint scraping of Mrs. Ausburg’s chair as she shifted nervously.