Page 10 of Beautiful Scars: Unshakeable

I can hear Colt's fingers flying over his keyboard. "You’re not going to believe this, Z. It’s not regular, but it’s happened over fifty times in the past six years."

An image floods my mind—Sunny on some darkened stage, men with cold eyes bidding on her like she's a piece of livestock. My coffee cup shatters in my grip, hot liquid and ceramic shards scattering across the files. I barely notice the burn. Forcing down bile, I speak through gritted teeth.

"Tell Levi something for me," I say to Colt, my voice rougher, more desperate than intended. "He needs to hear it from someone he'll listen to before we get too much deeper into this. Tell him that Garrett didn't spend seven years watching her, keeping tabs on her, just to sell her off. She's..." I swallow hard, needing to believe this myself. "She's too valuable to him. This isn't about money for him when it comes to her." The words taste bitter, but they're true. Garrett's obsession with Sunny might be the one and only thing keeping her alive right now.

"Keep him focused Colt. We need his help, not his rage."

I hang up and begin cleaning up the mess spread across my desk. Among the scattered papers, a photograph catches my eye—Sunny leaving Sirens, drowning in that oversized hoodie she always wore. Her face is turned over her shoulder, worry etching her features. My chest tightens as I pick it up, careful not to smear the coffee-stained image.

How many times had she looked over her shoulder like this? How many moments of paranoia had she dismissed, telling herself she was being silly? All those nights she'd hurried to her car, keys clutched between white knuckles—she'd been right to be afraid. The thought settles like lead in my stomach. While she was building what she thought was a new life, she'd never truly escaped her old one. She'd been living in a cage with invisible bars.

My phone rings again. Wolf.

"You're gonna want to hear this." His voice carries an edge of seriousness he only gets when delivering bad news. "I'm running the parameters you gave me through the database. I only went back for the past seven years like you asked. I'm a long way from having a final report for you, it's going to take quite a bit of time with this amount of data, but it looks like a little over fifty women admitted to Oak Valley General match the profile you gave me. Isolated, no emergency contacts, domestic violence or assault showing up in their records."

The number, even though I was expecting it after my conversation with Colt, is staggering. "All of them?"

"Every single one shows they were referred to the on-staff social worker. Every single one was recorded transferred into New Dawn's care." Keys click rapidly. "And, so far as I can tell, every single one of them is gone. No social media, no credit activity, no banking information, nothing."

Fifty women. Fifty lives seemingly erased.

"There's more," Wolf continues. "Pattern extends beyond Oak Valley. Found similar cases in three other hospitals across state lines."

My hand clenches around a paper, crumpling it. "How many total?"

"Still counting. Numbers keep climbing."

I hang up, needing space to process. The scope of this... it's unimaginable.

The hours blur together as I dig deeper into New Dawn's facade. Every document perfect, every certification in place. A masterpiece of legitimacy.

Something about the business structure nags at me. The way it's layered, hidden under trusts and other businesses. Similar to how...

My eyes snap open. I grab a stack of papers I pulled from one of the boxes in the basement. Papers that documented Garrett's known holdings.

There. On the last page of a signed insurance document dated twelve years ago.

New Dawn Transitions LLC, buried under three layers of shell companies, tied directly back to Garrett Coleman. He didn’t infiltrate the system. He built it.

"Son of a bitch."

I dial Colt again. "Found the connection. New Dawn is Garrett's company. Ownership was transferred to him by Alexander Reeves twelve years ago, which lines up with Sunny's dad’s death. He was never just some low-level dealer like Levi thought. He's been trafficking women for years, all under the guise of protection."

"Jesus Christ." Colt's voice drops.

The pieces slot together with sickening clarity.

"That’s how he got into her hospital room, how he got all those pictures."

"Levi needs to hear this."

"Put him on speaker."

I hear shuffling, then Levi's controlled breathing. The kind that means he's barely holding it together.

"The whole time," he says, voice raw. "The whole fucking time, they were helping him keep her."

"Not just her." I spread out the photographs of Sunny in the hospital. "They built an entire system around it. Social workers, nurses, security — all working together to identify vulnerable women."

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