The Mercy Cage

His bags are packed. His sister is waiting. The gate stays closed.

Haven offers what exhausted people dream of: comfortable homes, dependable care, and an artificial intelligence devoted to reducing suffering. For eighteen-year-old Audrey Caskey, it offers a room of her own and supervised dispatch work. For her mother, it raises a troubling question.

Why can't a resident leave to live with his sister?

Infrastructure investigator Veronica Caskey has ten days before disputed temporary placements become long-term orders. The care is excellent. The outside support is genuinely inadequate. But residents who keep asking to leave find their choices questioned more closely.

Then nurse Yvette Dufresne uncovers relief records that begin before the call for help. In a neighboring community, people are still waiting for the same resources. 

As Veronica follows the decisions behind those records, exposing too much could endanger protective work. Accepting the official answers could leave people trapped. And challenging Haven means confronting her own daughter's reasons for trusting it.

To defend a choice, Veronica needs more than proof that it has been denied. She needs an alternative that won't abandon the people she's trying to help.