THE LULLABY KEY : THE FALL

CHAPTER 45: The Death of Zero

The call came at 3:00 AM.

Lena was asleep in a hotel room in Washington, her head on Marcus’s chest, her body exhausted. The phone buzzed. Once. Twice. Three times.

She answered.

It was Zero’s assistant. A young woman named Priya, her voice shaking.

“Ms. Ashford. Something’s happened. Zero is… Zero is dead.”

Lena sat up. “What?”

“She was attacked in the Baltimore warehouse. Someone broke in. Someone she trusted. She’s gone. I’m so sorry.”

Lena’s world tilted.

Zero. Maya Hassan. The woman who had saved her life. The woman who had helped her expose the truth. The woman who had become a friend.

Gone.

“Who did it?” Lena asked.

“We don’t know. The security cameras were disabled. There were no witnesses. But we found something. A note. Taped to her body.”

“What did it say?”

Priya paused. “It said, ‘Tell Lena I’m sorry. Tell her I was the mole.'”

Lena’s blood froze.

“No. That’s not possible. Zero wasn’t the mole. She couldn’t have been.”

“She left a confession. A video. On her laptop. She said she had been working for Marchetti for years. She said she was the one who tipped off Aegis about Okonkwo. She said she was the one who led them to the library in Montreal.”

Lena couldn’t breathe.

“She said she was sorry. And then she killed herself.”

Lena dropped the phone.

Marcus held her.

She didn’t cry. She couldn’t cry. She was too numb.

Zero was the mole.

Zero had betrayed them.

Zero had killed herself.

Lena didn’t know what to believe anymore.

But she knew one thing.

The hunt for Marchetti wasn’t over.

It had just begun.

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