The Prison Project Chapter 114 Margot's POV

"Is her room not in the same block as yours?" Cara hummed, her fork hovering above her tray, forgotten.

"Yeah," I answered slowly, my brows pinching together. "Haven’t seen her there either… but maybe I’ve been too distracted…" The admission slipped out before I could catch it, my voice smaller than I intended.

Cara sighed, her lips pressing tight. She didn’t need to ask why. She knew exactly why.

This morning’s chaos with Coban still clung to me like smoke did for days after a fire, seeping into every crack of my day, stealing focus until there was nothing left but him.

Maybe Sarah had been right there, moving around the block, going about her day and I’d been too wrapped up in my own storm to notice…

The guilt needled sharp under my ribs.

My thoughts broke when movement on the other side of the table caught my eye. Coban’s hand reached across without warning, long thick fingers hooking into the edge of my tray.

Before I could protest, he swiped the second fish that belonged to him, dragging it back to his side to devour that one too – just as I had only made it through the first half of mine…

“Clever one, bro,” Leo chuckled, pointing his fork at him like he’d been caught red-handed. “Smuggling a third fish onto Margot’s tray? Think I’ll start using Cara to do my dirty work now too – might be onto something here!”

Cara rolled her eyes at him but bit down on a laugh anyway, shaking her head.

“Actually… I’ve decided I could go for a second fish after all!” I stated, my face fully serious, as I watched Coban pause, a large chunk of the fish already gone and another piece hanging from his lips.

I couldn’t hold it together for longer than a few seconds before erupting in a fit of laughter at how he had reacted.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the joke, as we all laughed together at that…

Even Coban…

Cara too…

For a fleeting moment, it was almost normal.

A group of friends eating dinner and joking around together…

The tension that had been knotted so tightly around my chest since this morning loosened just slightly, enough for the sound of laughter to feel foreign but good on my lips.

Cara’s gaze still flickered toward Coban now and then, the edge of distrust still there, but the corner of her mouth softened as if, just maybe, she was starting to see what I meant.

Why I had forgiven him.

Why I saw the better in him…

But then;

The moment cracked in half as it always seemed to in a place like this…

Yelling erupted from the far side of the canteen, sharp and vicious, cutting through the air like a blade.

“I’ll fuck you up! I’ll fucking kill you!”

The voice was loud enough to rattle me, to silence the scrape of forks against trays, for Coban and Leo to straighten and turn serious in mere seconds again…

I twisted in my seat, my heart thudding, craning my neck over the sea of heads until I spotted the source.

One man shoved another so hard a tray clattered to the floor, scattering food everywhere. Chairs screeched back as people scrambled out of their way, girls gasping, some even screaming due to being too close.

“Isn’t that…?” My voice trailed off, eyes narrowing to focus in through the chaos.

Cara’s head cocked to the side, her hair sliding over her shoulder. “That’s Sarah’s inmate, isn’t it?”

Her tone was low but urgent, and my stomach dropped at her words.

It definitely was him.

I remembered his face.

The way he had made Sarah struggle to the laundry room that day on her own…

I knew he wasn’t exactly the nicest guy, but who in this place would be?

He was a tall, broad-shouldered man and Sarah usually trailed behind him, his presence dark and heavy even in the best of moments.

Now his face was red with fury, veins standing out along his neck as he spat curses at the inmate opposite him like a crazy person. His fists were already clenched, jaw locked so tight I thought it might snap.

The other man shoved him back, and the two collided again, chest to chest like bulls about to gore each other.

What were they even fighting about?!

The whole room shifted around them, the calm of dinner time splintering into shouts and scraping chairs, guards barking orders from the walls with batons coming out of their belts…

But my eyes weren’t on the fight anymore. They were on the empty space around him, searching…

There was no Sarah.

No small figure clutching her tray.

Nothing.

She wasn’t here.

And suddenly, my chest felt hollow.

“Where is she?” I whispered, the noise of the fight swallowing my words.

Cara’s hand found mine under the table, gripping tight, her own face pale as her eyes darted frantically across the canteen.

“Who?” Coban questioned, taking note of my panic as I turned to look at him.

“Sarah, remember the laundry girl who bumped into me? That’s her inmate…” I reminded him, as he glanced back over, nodding slowly.

“Newman…” he remembered, as I nodded and his eyes narrowed.

“I’ve never liked that prick!” He sneered next, shocking me, as surprisingly Leo agreed.

“Yeah what’s he in here for again?” Leo squinted, as I couldn’t help but listen in on their words – longing to know what crime Sarah’s partner had committed to land himself in here.

“Didn’t he kill his ex-wife for cheating?” Leo added, as I almost choked on my saliva.

I looked to Cara, who looked just as horrified as me…

“He what?!” Cara straightened, as I glanced across at the guards now fighting to pull the huddle apart.

I don’t know why, but in that moment, my gut told me that something was very, very wrong…

“Can we go see if she’s in her room?” I asked Coban, my eyes and tone now frantic.

“Oh please? Can we? I don’t like this…” Cara added, pleading with Leo and already starting to stand up from her position.

Leo reached out, catching Cara by the wrist before she could bolt upright. His expression was tense, his voice low, but sharp enough to cut through her panic. “Sit down, not now. Guards are already crawling all over the place. You’ll draw their attention if you run out – they’ll think you’re involved.”

Cara frowned, her desperation written all over her face. “Or they’ll think that I’m just scared that men are fighting? I don’t care, Leo – what if she’s hurt? What if something happened to her?”

Coban leaned forward then, his hand pressing into the table, the weight of his stare pulling me to him. “Just give it five minutes to cool off, let the guards drag them out of here, then we’ll go…”

My stomach twisted.

They had a point.

At least they weren’t saying no.

We just had to wait…

But every part of me screamed that Sarah’s absence wasn’t just a coincidence here…