CHAPTER 6 — THE HOUSE WHERE SHE DISAPPEARED
The photograph remained on my father's phone.
My mother's face.
Older.
Alive.
I couldn't stop staring at it.
For twenty-three years, I had carried a memory of her frozen at thirty-nine.
Dark hair.
Warm smile.
The perfume she wore.
The sound of her voice reading bedtime stories.
I had spent years believing all of those memories belonged to someone who no longer existed.
Now I knew she had lived.
Somewhere.
For seventeen years.
Without me.
My father closed the vault door.
"Elena, we're leaving."
I didn't move.
"Where?"
"Back to the house."
"I want to go to the Vale estate."
"No."
"Dad."
"No."
I turned toward him.
"You lied to me about my mother."
His face tightened.
"You lied about the trust."
I stepped closer.
"You lied about Julian."
He looked away.
"And now you want me to trust you?"
He didn't answer.
Victor was standing near the wall.
He finally spoke.
"She's right."
My father glared at him.
"This doesn't concern you."
"It concerns all of us."
Victor looked at me.
"Your mother didn't disappear because she wanted to."
"What happened?"
He hesitated.
"She was taken."
My stomach tightened.
"By whom?"
"Men working for Project Orchid."
"Who ordered it?"
Victor looked at my father.
"That's the question we've been trying to answer."
My father suddenly turned.
"Enough."
Victor didn't stop.
"Daniel knows more than he's telling you."
I looked at my father.
"Is that true?"
His silence was devastating.
"How much?"
He finally said:
"Enough to be ashamed."
I stared at him.
Before I could ask another question, a loud crash echoed from above.
My father immediately reached for his weapon.
"Down."
The three of us moved.
Another crash.
Then footsteps.
Someone was coming down the stairs.
Victor raised his weapon.
My father stood in front of me.
A man appeared.
One of my father's security officers.
His face was bleeding.
"Mr. Hart."
My father caught him.
"What happened?"
"They're inside."
"Who?"
"I don't know."
The officer looked toward me.
"They asked for Elena."
My blood went cold.
"How did they know I was here?"
Nobody answered.
Then the lights flickered.
Victor looked at the ceiling.
"They're cutting the power."
My father grabbed my arm.
"We're leaving."
We moved through a secondary passage.
The vault had been built with an emergency exit.
It opened into a narrow alley behind the building.
Rain poured down.
A black vehicle waited.
My father pushed me inside.
Victor followed.
The car accelerated.
For several minutes, nobody spoke.
I watched Manhattan disappear behind us.
Then I looked at my father.
"Take me to the estate."
"No."
"Then I'll go alone."
"You don't know where it is."
"I'll find it."
He sighed.
"Elena..."
"Please."
The word escaped before I could stop it.
He looked at me.
I had not called him Dad that way since I was a child.
He finally nodded.
"Fine."
The Vale estate was three hours north.
It had been abandoned for nearly two decades.
At least officially.
The gates were rusted.
The stone walls were covered with vines.
The house itself stood on a hill surrounded by dead trees.
I stared through the windshield.
"This is where she disappeared?"
Victor nodded.
"Yes."
My father parked.
Nobody moved.
Finally, I opened the door.
The cold air struck my face.
I walked toward the house.
Every step felt strangely familiar.
Not because I remembered it.
Because my mother had described it.
Once.
When I was little.
She had told me about a house with a black staircase and a blue bedroom.
I had always thought it was a dream.
Now I realized it had been this place.
The front door opened before we reached it.
I stopped.
My father raised his weapon.
Victor stepped forward.
"Who's there?"
No answer.
The door moved slowly in the wind.
Inside, the house smelled of dust and damp wood.
I stepped across the threshold.
A chandelier hung from the ceiling.
Broken portraits lined the walls.
Then I saw it.
A photograph.
My mother.
Standing in this exact hallway.
I touched the frame.
The photograph had been taken twenty-three years earlier.
Someone had written beneath it:
SHE CAME HERE ALIVE.
I whispered:
"She was here."
My father looked around.
"Yes."
We searched the first floor.
Nothing.
Then I heard something.
A faint sound.
Three knocks.
Pause.
Three knocks.
Pause.
Three knocks.
My heart raced.
"Did you hear that?"
Victor nodded.
We followed the sound.
It led toward the old library.
The room was enormous.
Thousands of books.
A fireplace.
A grandfather clock.
I remembered something.
My mother used to tell me:
"When you're frightened, look for the clock."
I walked toward it.
The hands were frozen at 11:17.
I touched the clock.
Nothing.
Then I pressed the lower panel.
Click.
The entire bookshelf moved.
A hidden passage opened.
My father stared.
"How did you know?"
"My mother told me."
We entered.
At the end of the passage was a small room.
A bed.
A desk.
A lamp.
And on the desk—
a cup.
Still there.
My mother had lived here.
My knees weakened.
I sat in the chair.
My father's eyes filled with something I had never seen before.
Regret.
He whispered:
"She waited here."
"For how long?"
"Six months."
I looked at him.
"And you never found her?"
"I found the room."
"That's not what I asked."
He looked away.
"She left before I arrived."
"Where did she go?"
"I don't know."
I opened the desk.
Inside were letters.
Dozens of them.
All addressed to me.
Elena.
My hands shook.
I opened the first.
My daughter,
If you're reading this, I failed to return to you.
I couldn't breathe.
The next line blurred through my tears.
I didn't leave because I stopped loving you.
I left because loving you was the only thing keeping me alive.
I pressed the letter to my chest.
My father stood silently behind me.
I opened another.
Your father believes he can protect you.
He cannot.
I looked at him.
Another letter.
The man you married will eventually show you what he truly is.
I stared.
Julian.
My mother had predicted him.
Twenty-three years before I met him.
Then I saw the final page.
It contained one name.
Richard Cole.
My heart stopped.
"Richard."
My father stepped closer.
"What?"
"He was involved."
My father took the paper.
His face hardened.
"How?"
The final line answered us.
Richard was the one who gave them my location.
A sound came from behind us.
Slow applause.
We turned.
Julian stood at the entrance.
He was wearing a dark coat.
His face was bruised.
His eyes were cold.
Two armed men stood behind him.
Selene was nowhere in sight.
Julian looked at me.
"I knew you'd come."
My father raised his weapon.
"One step closer and you die."
Julian smiled.
"You still don't understand."
He looked at me.
"She isn't here."
I froze.
"Who?"
"Your mother."
He stepped into the room.
"She's somewhere else."
"Where?"
Julian looked at the letter in my hand.
"You want to know?"
"Yes."
"Then come with me."
My father stepped between us.
"You're not taking my daughter."
Julian smiled.
"She'll come willingly."
He looked directly at me.
"Because I know something your father doesn't."
I stared at him.
"What?"
Julian's voice dropped.
"Your mother didn't disappear."
He paused.
"She ran."
"Why?"
"Because she discovered what Daniel had done."
My father shouted:
"Don't listen to him."
Julian smiled.
"Ask him."
I turned toward my father.
"Did Mom run from you?"
He didn't answer.
Julian laughed.
"There it is."
I looked back at him.
"What do you know?"
"I know where she went."
"Where?"
Julian reached into his coat.
He pulled out a small photograph.
My mother.
Standing outside a hospital.
Seventeen years ago.
On the back were three words.
SHE HAD A CHILD.
I stared at the photograph.
My heart stopped.
"What child?"
Julian smiled.
"That's the question."
He turned toward the door.
"Come with me."
My father grabbed my arm.
"Elena, don't."
I looked at Julian.
"Why would I trust you?"
"You shouldn't."
He smiled.
"But you should want the truth."
Then he walked away.
And I realized something terrifying.
For the first time in my life, Julian wasn't trying to control me.
May you like
He was offering me a choice.
And somehow, that was even more dangerous.
