Chapter 11 - THE RED DOORDaniel barely slept.
At dawn, Lena woke screaming.
“Red door!”
Daniel rushed into the room.
Lena was sitting upright.
“I remember.”
“What?”
“The basement.”
Daniel sat beside her.
“What did you see?”
“A hallway.”
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
“Try.”
She closed her eyes.
“I was small.”
“How small?”
“Six.”
Daniel's heart tightened.
“You were six.”
She nodded.
“Amira was holding my hand.”
Daniel felt tears sting his eyes.
“What happened?”
“She was crying.”
“Why?”
“She told me not to be afraid.”
“Then?”
“A man opened the red door.”
“What did he look like?”
Lena's breathing became rapid.
“He had your voice.”
Daniel froze.
“My voice?”
“He sounded like you.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
Lena stared at him.
“He called me sweetheart.”
Daniel had never used that word.
Not with Lily.
But Sarah had.
Daniel suddenly remembered something.
One night shortly before Lily vanished, he had come home and found Sarah arguing with a stranger.
A man.
He had assumed it was a doctor.
Sarah told him not to worry.
Daniel had forgotten the man's face.
Now Lena remembered it.
“He had your face.”
Daniel went silent.
Mara walked into the room.
“It wasn't him.”
Daniel turned.
“What?”
“Cross had someone who looked like him.”
Daniel stared.
“A double?”
Mara nodded.
“Used to fool people.”
“Why?”
“To make children think their parents were there.”
Daniel felt sick.
The entire disappearance had been engineered.
Lily hadn't simply been kidnapped.
She had been psychologically manipulated.
And Daniel had been deliberately kept outside the truth.
Mara placed a file on the table.
“We found his name.”
Daniel opened it.
The man was called Elias Voss.
Former intelligence contractor.
Dead for twelve years.
Except the death certificate had been forged.
Daniel looked up.
“He's alive.”
Mara nodded.
“And he's working for Cross.”
Daniel stood.
“Where?”
Mara pointed to an address.
Daniel recognized it.
Cross's private estate.
The same estate where Daniel had once attended a charity gala.
A place filled with security cameras and armed guards.
Daniel looked at Lena.
“We go there.”
Morales shook his head.
“You'll be killed.”
Daniel didn't care.
“My daughters are being hunted.”
He stood.
“I've spent twenty-eight years being afraid.”
He looked at Mara.
“I'm done.”
That night, they entered Cross's estate through an underground tunnel.
Inside, they found room after room of files.
Photographs.
Names.
Payments.
Children.
Daniel stopped in front of one wall.
Hundreds of photographs.
Hundreds of missing children.
At the center was one giant photograph.
Lily.
Underneath it:
PRIMARY SUBJECT.
Next to it was another.
Mara.
SECONDARY SUBJECT.
And below both photographs was a third.
A photograph of Daniel.
His name was circled in red.
Under it:
FINAL TRIGGER.
Daniel stared.
“What does that mean?”
Before anyone could answer, the lights came on.
Adrian Cross stood behind them.
Applauding slowly.
“Twenty-eight years.”
May you like
He smiled.
“Daniel, you finally came home.”
