Chapter 8 - The Child Who RememberedLily woke at 3:17 a.m.
She sat upright before the nanny could reach her.
"Daddy?"
Adrian came immediately.
"I'm here."
Lily grabbed his wrist.
"Don't go to the red room."
Adrian knelt beside her.
"Why?"
"Mommy cried there."
Adrian's face tightened.
"You remember Mommy in the red room?"
Lily nodded.
"Before the car."
"What car?"
"The bad car."
Adrian's breathing slowed.
"What happened?"
Lily looked toward the door.
"Mommy said a man was pretending to be Daddy."
Adrian froze.
"A man pretending to be me?"
Lily nodded.
"He had Daddy's coat."
Marcus, standing behind Adrian, went pale.
Victor.
The decoy.
Adrian touched Lily's shoulder.
"What else?"
"Mommy told him to leave."
"What did he do?"
"I don't remember."
She squeezed her eyes shut.
Then whispered:
"He dropped something."
"What?"
"A silver ring."
Adrian looked at Marcus.
Daniel's ring.
But then Lily shook her head.
"Not Uncle Daniel."
Adrian stopped.
"Who?"
Lily pointed toward the hallway.
"The man with Mommy."
Marcus whispered:
"Victor."
Adrian's mind raced.
Maybe Victor hadn't been helping Elena.
Maybe he had been with her because he had been watching someone.
Someone else.
Adrian reopened the MIRROR files.
He found a hidden audio track.
Victor's voice.
"I can get her out."
Elena replied:
"No."
"Why?"
"Because Adrian will follow."
"He loves you."
"That's why."
A long pause.
Then Elena said:
"He doesn't know the difference between protection and possession anymore."
Adrian stared at the screen.
The words hurt because they sounded like Elena.
Not angry.
Not cruel.
Just exhausted.
The audio continued.
"I need you to get Lily somewhere he cannot find."
Victor answered:
"And you?"
"I'll finish the evidence."
"What evidence?"
"The one that proves what Grant and Daniel are doing."
"And Vanessa?"
Elena hesitated.
"Vanessa is frightened."
"Frightened people can be dangerous."
"She's not the one I'm afraid of."
"Who are you afraid of?"
Elena's voice dropped.
"My husband."
The audio ended.
Adrian closed his eyes.
Marcus didn't speak.
Finally Adrian said:
"Find Victor."
They located him the next morning.
Alive.
Hiding in an abandoned coastal property.
Victor refused to surrender.
He pointed a gun at Adrian.
"You shouldn't have come."
Adrian stopped.
"I need answers."
"You need to leave."
"What happened to Elena?"
Victor's eyes filled with anger.
"She trusted you."
"What happened?"
"You killed her."
Adrian went still.
"What?"
"Not with your hands."
Victor lowered the weapon slightly.
"With the world you built."
Adrian stared at him.
Victor continued.
"Daniel stole from the company. Grant covered it. Vanessa helped move information. But Elena discovered something bigger."
"What?"
Victor laughed bitterly.
"Your emergency system."
Adrian remembered the authorization.
The one he had signed.
"That system was designed to seize assets and silence internal threats."
"I built it to protect the company."
"Elena discovered Daniel was using it against employees."
Adrian's face changed.
Whistleblowers.
Internal investigations.
People who knew too much.
People who vanished from the company.
Victor lowered the gun.
"Daniel used your authority as a weapon."
"And Elena?"
"She was going to expose everything."
"Why didn't she?"
"Because she found out what you would do."
Adrian stared at him.
"What would I do?"
Victor's answer was quiet.
"You would hunt everyone."
A long silence.
Then Victor handed him a small key.
"She left this for you."
"What is it?"
"A storage box."
"Where?"
Victor looked toward the ocean.
"At the place where she planned to disappear."
Adrian tightened his grip on the key.
"Why didn't you take her there?"
Victor looked at him.
"I did."
Adrian's heart stopped.
"You mean Elena survived the crash?"
Victor didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
Adrian understood.
The body in the wreckage had never been positively identified.
May you like
And suddenly the mystery he thought he was solving became something else entirely.
Elena might have been alive.
Related Stories
