Chapter 3 - Echoes in the DarkThe basement was worse than Andrew imagined. It was a cold, concrete box with a single mattress and a bucket. Noah was there, huddled in a corner, his face bruised and his eyes wide with a feral, hollow look.
When he saw Ethan, he let out a strangled cry. "Brother? You came back?"
Andrew felt his heart shatter. He fell to his knees on the freezing floor, his expensive suit forgotten. He scooped the small boy into his arms. Noah was shaking so hard his teeth chattered.
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"I’m here, Noah," Ethan sobbed, clinging to them both. "This is Andrew. He’s... he’s the man who hugged me."
Andrew looked at the scars on Noah’s arms—marks of ropes, of neglect. He realized this wasn't just a foster home. It was a human trafficking front masked as a boarding school. He had stumbled onto a monster’s lair.
