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Chapter 16

  Two months after Angel left the school, something unexpected happened.

  The city announced a political visit. The mayor was coming to inspect several public institutions, including the elementary school Angel had attended.

  The news spread quickly through the neighborhood. Local reporters arrived. City officials prepared the route. Security teams organized the event.

  I had no intention of taking Angel near that place again.

  But fate has strange timing.

  That morning we happened to pass the school while walking home from the grocery store. The street was crowded with police cars, cameras, and city staff directing traffic.

  Angel stopped walking.

  Watching everything carefully.

  “What’s happening?” she asked.

  “Just a political visit,” I said. “Nothing important.”

  A group of children stood near the entrance of the school in neat rows, holding small flags.

  The mayor stood in the center of the crowd. A tall man in his late fifties. Hair carefully combed. Suit perfectly pressed. A practiced smile that never quite reached his eyes.

  Cameras flashed while reporters leaned forward with microphones.

  “Children are the future of our city,” the mayor said warmly. “We must protect them and provide opportunities for every child.”

  The speech sounded perfect.

  Polished.

  Safe.

  Angel watched him quietly.

  Her eyes unusually focused.

  The mayor walked down the line of students shaking hands and smiling for photographs.

  Then he noticed Angel standing slightly apart from the group.

  “Well hello there,” he said kindly. “Are you a student here?”

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  Angel looked up at him silently, studying his face.

  Then she spoke.

  “Your son sells drugs.”

  The words were quiet.

  But the microphones nearby caught them clearly.

  The cameras stopped flashing.

  “What did you say?” the mayor asked.

  His smile frozen.

  Angel continued calmly.

  “In Canada.”

  A reporter slowly lowered his microphone.

  “He was arrested last month,” Angel said.

  The mayor’s face turned pale.

  “You paid three million dollars to make it disappear.”

  The street fell completely silent.

  One reporter turned on his recording device again.

  The mayor laughed suddenly.

  A forced sound.

  “That’s quite an imagination you have.”

  Angel didn’t smile.

  “The money came from the development project,” she said.

  The mayor stopped laughing.

  “Your accountant helped move it. The documents are in your house.”

  A long pause followed.

  Then the mayor’s assistant stepped forward quickly.

  “We’re running behind schedule,” he said nervously. “We should continue the tour.”

  The mayor nodded too quickly and walked toward the car waiting at the curb.

  Without another word.

  But the reporters were already whispering.

  Already calling editors.

  Already asking questions.

  Within hours the story appeared online.

  Then on television.

  Then across every major news outlet.

  “Child exposes corruption during mayor’s visit.”

  Journalists investigated cautiously at first.

  Then aggressively.

  Within three days the evidence appeared—bank records, transfers, hidden accounts.

  The development project funds had indeed been moved illegally.

  Millions of dollars.

  A week later the mayor was suspended from office.

  Two weeks later he was under criminal investigation.

  Angel’s name didn’t appear in the official reports.

  But everyone knew.

  The mysterious child.

  The one who saw secrets.

  The one who exposed corruption.

  Reporters soon appeared outside our apartment building. Television vans lined the street. Journalists knocked on every door.

  “Is it true your niece can read minds?”

  “Did she predict the mayor’s arrest?”

  “Has she revealed other secrets?”

  I refused every interview.

  Closed every door.

  Ignored every call.

  But the story had already spread far beyond our city.

  That night Angel sat quietly on the living room floor drawing again—lines, circles, connections.

  “You made a lot of people angry today,” I said gently.

  Angel looked up.

  “Why?”

  “Because powerful people don’t like their secrets exposed.”

  Angel thought about that.

  “But it was hurting people,” she said.

  “What was?”

  “The bridge project.”

  She pointed at one of her drawings.

  “The materials were bad.”

  I frowned.

  “What do you mean?”

  Angel’s voice remained calm.

  “If they built it, it would collapse.”

  A chill ran through me.

  “How do you know that?”

  Angel looked down at the drawing again.

  “I saw it.”

  Later that night I searched the news reports about the development project.

  Buried deep inside the financial investigation was another detail.

  The contractor responsible for the bridge had a long history of using substandard materials.

  If the project had continued—

  Hundreds of people might have crossed that bridge every day.

  And one day—

  It might have fallen.

  Angel had exposed the corruption.

  But in doing so—

  She had also exposed herself.

  Because now the entire world was beginning to ask the same question:

  Who was this child?

  And how could she possibly know these things?

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