Chapter 6 - At 9:46 p.m., the mansion sealed itself.Steel shutters dropped over every window.
The doors locked.
Air vents changed to emergency mode.
The system had been built after a kidnapping attempt twelve years earlier.
I designed it.
I had never imagined it could be turned against me.
Elena led us downstairs.
She knew the hidden passages better than I did.
We passed seven doors.
One had no handle.
Another was painted red.
The final one was marked R-17.
Elena inserted the brass key.
The vault opened.
Inside were shelves of files.
Hard drives.
Photographs.
Medical records.
And hundreds of small tapes.
I picked up one file.
My father's name.
EDWARD VALE.
Inside was a list of payments made to doctors, police officers, judges, and private security firms.
I turned another page.
There was a photograph of a basement room.
A child sat in a chair.
The child's face was mine.
I took a step backward.
“No.”
Elena touched my arm.
“You were eight.”
“What happened?”
“You disappeared for six days.”
I remembered that.
Or thought I remembered.
My family had said I had been visiting relatives.
But the memory was wrong.
I suddenly remembered a locked room.
Bright lights.
A man's voice asking me the same question over and over.
“What did you see at 9:17?”
I had forgotten.
No.
Someone had made me forget.
Lily was standing beside one of the shelves.
She pulled out a tape.
“Dad.”
I took it.
The label said:
R-17 / SUBJECT L / FINAL OBSERVATION
My hands began shaking.
Elena looked at me.
“Don't play that yet.”
“Why?”
“Because once you hear it, there's no pretending.”
I placed the tape on the desk.
Then another detail caught my attention.
On the wall was a large clock.
9:17.
Frozen.
“What's that?”
Elena's face tightened.
“That's when everything started.”
I walked closer.
The clock wasn't broken.
It was electronic.
A red light blinked behind the number.
I pressed it.
The entire wall moved.
A hidden projector activated.
Images appeared.
Security footage.
Three years ago.
The night Elena supposedly died.
I saw my wife enter a car.
I saw Lily in the back seat.
I saw another vehicle following them.
Then the image changed.
My mother appeared.
Talking to someone beside the road.
Marco.
Then Victor stepped from the shadows.
Alive.
I gripped the desk.
“No.”
The footage continued.
Elena saw them.
She pulled Lily from the car and ran.
A fourth person appeared.
My father.
Impossible.
He looked exactly as he had before his death.
He approached Elena.
She stopped.
Then he said something the camera could not capture.
Elena screamed.
The footage cut out.
I stared at the blank screen.
“Who was she screaming at?”
Elena looked at me.
“At you.”
“What?”
“She thought you were coming.”
“I wasn't there.”
“You were.”
“No.”
Elena walked toward me.
“You arrived at 9:17.”
I remembered a flash.
Rain.
Headlights.
A little girl's hand.
Blood on glass.
Then nothing.
My mother suddenly said:
“The vault is open.”
We all turned.
She was smiling.
She had lied about one thing.
The vault had never been the goal.
It was the trap.
Because every file inside began deleting itself.
One by one.
Then a countdown appeared on the wall.
00:10
00:09
00:08
Elena grabbed my hand.
“Adrian, run.”
“What happens at zero?”
May you like
My mother answered.
“The truth burns.”
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