Chapter 66

"Can I be excused?" Carmela asked, her voice barely above a whisper. Officer Johnson nodded, and she stepped out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Outside, she pulled out her phone and texted Max back. "Is this really important?" she wrote.

Almost immediately, her phone buzzed with a reply. "Yes," the message read. "It's urgent."

Carmela put her phone back in her pocket, her mind racing. She knew she shouldn't leave the station - what if Nichole called again? But at the same time, she couldn't just sit there and do nothing. 

She had to find her twins not by just siting around. After a moment's hesitation, she made up her mind and walked out of the station, her heart pounding in her chest.

Carmela stepped out of the cab and looked around, taking in the surroundings. 

The neighborhood was rundown and abandoned, with boarded-up windows and overgrown yards. It was a far cry from the comfortable neighborhood she had grown up in.