Chapter 4 - Under the HouseNo one spoke for several seconds.
Daniel stared at Vanessa.
“Under the house?”
“Yes.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I expect you to understand that I was trying to keep you alive.”
“You married me.”
“Yes.”
“For what?”
Vanessa's eyes filled with tears.
“I was supposed to find something.”
“What?”
“I didn't know.”
“That makes no sense.”
“I was given a name, an address, and one instruction.”
Daniel's voice dropped.
“What instruction?”
“Marry Daniel Stellan.”
The room became silent.
Lily began to cry softly.
Daniel closed his eyes.
The truth felt worse than betrayal because part of him had known something was wrong.
The rushed wedding.
Vanessa's strange interest in his father's company.
Her insistence that Daniel never sell the family house.
Her fear whenever he mentioned the past.
Everything he had dismissed suddenly rearranged itself.
“Who gave you the order?”
“I don't know.”
“You're lying.”
“I wish I were.”
Evan stepped forward.
“Where is the entrance?”
Vanessa looked at him.
“You knew.”
“I suspected.”
“Then you know what happened last time someone opened it.”
Daniel turned.
“What happened?”
Vanessa shook her head.
“Your father found something beneath the house.”
“What?”
“A vault.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“A vault.”
“Yes.”
“Why would my father build a vault under the house?”
“He didn't.”
Daniel stopped laughing.
“Who did?”
“The people who funded the original company.”
“Who are they?”
Vanessa whispered a name.
“Orpheus.”
Daniel had heard it once.
A private consortium.
Investors.
Politicians.
Defense contractors.
A rumor from his father's old business papers.
Nothing concrete.
Evan took out a map.
“There's one problem.”
“What?”
“We've searched the property before.”
Daniel looked at him.
“You searched my house?”
“Yes.”
“You've been in my house without me knowing?”
“We thought it was abandoned intelligence property.”
Daniel stared.
“It was never abandoned.”
“No.”
The three of them went to the basement.
Behind a storage shelf, Evan found a section of concrete different from the rest.
Daniel remembered the key.
He inserted it into a tiny brass lock hidden beneath the shelf.
The concrete wall clicked.
Then shifted backward.
A staircase appeared.
Cold air rose from below.
Lily clung to Daniel.
Vanessa whispered, “We need to leave.”
Daniel ignored her.
He descended.
The walls were covered in old wiring.
At the bottom stood a steel door.
A fingerprint scanner was mounted beside it.
Daniel touched the screen.
It activated.
IDENTITY CONFIRMED: DANIEL STELLAN.
The door opened.
Inside was a room filled with monitors.
Files.
Hard drives.
Photographs.
And a single hospital bed.
Daniel walked toward it.
The sheets were fresh.
The machine beside it was running.
A heart monitor blinked steadily.
Someone had been here recently.
Very recently.
Then he saw the photograph hanging above the bed.
His father.
Older.
Thinner.
But unmistakably alive.
Daniel's knees almost gave out.
“When was this taken?”
Evan checked the timestamp.
“Three days ago.”
Daniel stared.
He walked to a desk.
On it were surveillance reports.
His entire life had been documented.
School.
University.
First job.
Marriage.
Lily's birth.
Every address.
Every major purchase.
Every argument with Vanessa.
Someone had been observing him for decades.
Then Daniel found a folder labeled:
SUBJECT: DANIEL STELLAN
Inside was a single page.
Primary objective: Maintain proximity.
Under it:
Secondary objective: Ensure inheritance remains intact.
Then:
Final objective: Identify the vault access sequence.
Daniel looked at Vanessa.
“You.”
She nodded.
“I was sent to find it.”
“And after Lily was born?”
Vanessa's voice broke.
“They changed the instructions.”
“What did they tell you?”
She looked at Lily.
“They told me the child had to remain in the house.”
Daniel felt a cold rush through him.
“Why?”
Vanessa didn't answer.
The lights in the vault suddenly shut off.
A monitor flickered on.
Richard Stellan appeared on screen.
He looked directly into the camera.
“Daniel.”
Daniel froze.
His father's recording played.
“I know you are standing in the vault.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“If you've reached this room, someone has probably told you I am dead.”
A pause.
“I am not.”
Daniel whispered, “Dad?”
His father's expression became grim.
“But the man who is pretending to be me is.”
The screen changed.
A photograph appeared.
A man who looked almost exactly like Richard Stellan.
Daniel stared.
Then the image zoomed in.
A scar appeared behind the man's left ear.
His father had never had that scar.
Richard's voice continued.
“I created a copy of my identity because the real Richard Stellan had already been compromised.”
Then a final line appeared.
DO NOT TRUST VANESSA.
Daniel turned.
May you like
Vanessa had disappeared again.
And somewhere beneath the house, a door slammed.
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