Chapter 10: The Locked Room
The kitchen floor shook beneath us.
Gunfire echoed through the farmhouse.
Lily screamed into my chest.
“Daddy!”
“I've got you.”
Emma grabbed my arm.
“The tunnel. Now.”
Sarah fired twice toward the front door.
“Move!”
I lifted Lily.
Emma pulled the rug away.
Beneath it was an old wooden hatch.
She opened it.
A narrow staircase disappeared into darkness.
Robert stared down.
“You knew this existed?”
Emma nodded.
“I've used it before.”
“For what?”
“To escape.”
A bullet struck the wall above us.
Sarah shouted.
“Questions later!”
We climbed down.
I went first with Lily.
Emma followed.
Sarah came last.
Robert slammed the hatch shut.
Darkness swallowed us.
For several seconds, all I could hear was Lily breathing against my neck.
Then I heard footsteps above.
Slow.
Heavy.
Searching.
Thomas's voice echoed through the farmhouse.
“Daniel.”
I held my breath.
“You can't hide forever.”
Emma whispered:
“He won't come down.”
“How do you know?”
“Because your father never built this tunnel for himself.”
I looked at her.
“Then who?”
“For the children.”
We kept moving.
The tunnel was old.
Concrete walls.
Rusting pipes.
A single row of emergency lights still flickering overhead.
After several minutes, we reached a steel door.
Emma entered a code.
The lock clicked.
We stepped into a room.
I stopped.
There were two cribs.
Two children's beds.
Two wardrobes.
Two nameplates.
LILY CARTER.
ANNA CARTER.
I stared.
“This was built before they were born.”
Emma nodded.
“Yes.”
“Who knew?”
“Your father.”
“And Victoria?”
“Yes.”
“Thomas?”
“Yes.”
I turned toward her.
“Who else?”
Emma looked at me.
“You.”
I frowned.
“I didn't know.”
“You did once.”
My stomach tightened.
“What do you mean?”
She pointed toward a desk.
On it sat a stack of old photographs.
The top one showed me as a little boy.
Six years old.
Sitting beside my father.
I looked terrified.
My father had one hand on my shoulder.
In front of us stood my grandfather.
And on the table between them was a document.
I picked it up.
It was a child's drawing.
Two circles.
Two babies.
And underneath, written in my own handwriting:
I WILL KEEP THEM SAFE.
I stared at it.
“I wrote this?”
Emma nodded.
“You remembered.”
“Then they erased it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because you saw too much.”
A sound came from the other side of the steel door.
We all froze.
Three knocks.
Then silence.
Sarah raised her weapon.
Another three knocks.
Emma whispered:
“Don't open it.”
I looked at her.
“Who is it?”
She didn't answer.
A voice came through the door.
“Daniel.”
My father's voice.
I couldn't move.
Lily looked at me.
“Daddy?”
The voice came again.
“Son.”
I stepped toward the door.
Emma grabbed my wrist.
“No.”
“That's my father.”
“No.”
“You said he was alive.”
“He is.”
“Then why can't I see him?”
“Because the man on the other side isn't alone.”
A pause.
Then my father's voice changed.
“Daniel, open the door.”
I looked through the small window.
An elderly man stood in the corridor.
My father.
Older.
Gray hair.
But alive.
Beside him stood Thomas.
And behind them—
Victoria.
She looked directly at me.
Her face was bruised.
Blood ran from her forehead.
She mouthed one word.
Run.
Then Thomas raised his gun.
The lights went out.
When they came back on, the corridor was empty.
I opened the door.
No one.
Only a bloodstained scarf lay on the floor.
Victoria's.
Emma picked it up.
“She warned us.”
I stared at the empty hallway.
“Where did they go?”
Emma shook her head.
“Your father has another passage.”
“Where?”
“Under the west wing.”
I looked at Sarah.
“We need to find him.”
She nodded.
“But first we need to get Lily somewhere safe.”
“No.”
I looked at my daughter.
“I've spent my whole life letting other people decide what's safe for her.”
I picked her up.
“That's over.”
The tunnel led to an old garage three miles away.
A black SUV waited.
Inside was a note.
DRIVE TO THE PIER. COME ALONE.
Emma read it.
“It's a trap.”
“Obviously.”
Sarah looked at me.
“Then we don't go.”
I stared at the note.
“Anna is alive.”
Emma went silent.
“If they have her…”
“They do.”
“We can't leave her.”
“I won't.”
Sarah sighed.
“Then we do this intelligently.”
She pulled out her phone.
“I'll call for backup.”
But before she could dial, her screen went black.
“No signal.”
Robert checked his.
“Mine too.”
I looked toward the road.
Every streetlight had gone dark.
Someone had shut down the entire area.
The black SUVs appeared at the end of the road.
One.
Two.
Three.
Emma whispered:
“They're here.”
I started the engine.
“Everyone get in.”
We drove.
The pier was empty.
Fog covered the water.
The ocean was silent.
I stepped out alone.
“Thomas!”
Nothing.
Then a spotlight came on.
Thomas stood at the end of the pier.
Beside him was my father.
And between them—
a little girl.
Same dark hair.
Same blue eyes.
Same face as Lily.
Anna.
My knees nearly buckled.
She was holding a rabbit.
Just like Lily.
My father spoke.
“Daniel.”
I couldn't look away from Anna.
“Let her go.”
He shook his head.
“You still don't understand.”
“I understand enough.”
“No.”
He pointed toward Anna.
“She isn't your prisoner.”
“She is my daughter.”
“She is the reason you're alive.”
I looked at him.
“What?”
May you like
My father smiled sadly.
“You were never supposed to survive.”
