Chapter 10 - The Children in the LedgerMy Family Didn't Build a Resort
Thomas's old room became a crime scene before sunrise.
Vince secured the doors.
Mara scanned the walls.
Ruth sat beside the window, staring at the photograph.
I couldn't stop looking at the hospital bracelet.
Two names.
One experiment.
My brother and me.
I had spent fourteen months believing Thomas had left me alone.
Now I realized he had spent seventeen years trying to keep me from remembering him.
Mara found another compartment.
This one beneath the floorboards.
Inside was a black ledger.
Real paper.
Handwritten names.
Hundreds.
Some crossed out.
Others marked with dates.
At the top:
PROJECT HALCYON
I opened it.
Every page contained a patient.
Age.
Medical condition.
Neurological response.
Outcome.
Most ended with one word.
FAILED.
I turned the page.
Thomas.
SUCCESSFUL.
Then mine.
PENDING.
My fingers went cold.
“Pending what?”
Mara took the ledger.
“Activation.”
“What activation?”
She kept reading.
“Memory reconstruction.”
I stared.
She looked at me.
“They didn't erase your memories.”
“Then what?”
“They fragmented them.”
“Why?”
“Because complete suppression is unstable.”
I felt sick.
“They wanted to rebuild the memory later.”
“When?”
“Under controlled conditions.”
“What conditions?”
She swallowed.
“Severe stress.”
The room went silent.
I laughed.
“You're telling me someone designed my brain to remember only when I was terrified?”
“Yes.”
Richard had known.
Thomas had known.
Maybe everyone had known.
Everyone except me.
Mara turned another page.
Then stopped.
A red mark covered one entry.
NORA VALE.
Her face changed.
I stared.
“That's you.”
She didn't speak.
“You lied.”
Her breathing shook.
“Not about everything.”
“Who is Nora?”
“My sister.”
I waited.
Mara finally looked at me.
“She died at the rehabilitation center.”
“What happened?”
“She remembered.”
“What?”
“Everything.”
Mara sat down.
“She had been enrolled in the program when she was twelve.”
I felt my chest tighten.
“You were never the patient.”
“No.”
“You were investigating.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To find who killed her.”
She stared at Thomas's name.
“And your brother helped me.”
I looked up.
“My brother knew your sister.”
“He helped her escape.”
“What happened?”
“She made it out.”
“Then why did she die?”
Mara's eyes filled.
“Because someone followed her.”
I looked at Ruth.
She looked away.
“Who?”
Mara whispered:
“Someone inside Hollow Pine.”
Before I could ask another question, every phone in the room rang simultaneously.
One ring.
Then another.
Then silence.
Vince answered his.
His face changed.
“What?”
He listened.
Then lowered the phone.
“What is it?”
He looked at me.
“The police just arrived.”
“Good.”
“No.”
His voice was barely audible.
“They brought a warrant for your arrest.”
“For what?”
He looked down.
“Murder.”
“Whose?”
May you like
He raised his eyes.
“Richard's.”
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