Chapter 12 - The next morning, Chicago woke up to chaos.Banks froze accounts.
News stations reported financial irregularities.
Sterling Hospitality stock collapsed.
Three executives disappeared.
Two lawyers were arrested.
And Sterling's Bistro was surrounded by federal agents.
Mom sat in Vincent's library, staring at the television.
“None of this makes sense.”
Vincent stood behind her.
“It will.”
“When?”
“When we find Daniel.”
She looked at him.
“You believe he's alive.”
“Yes.”
“You believe my husband planned all of this.”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn't he come back?”
Vincent didn't answer immediately.
“Because every time he did, people around him died.”
Mom looked down.
“What about my mother?”
Vincent froze.
“What?”
“My mother died two years after Daniel.”
“Why?”
“I was told it was heart failure.”
Vincent slowly reached for a file.
He opened it.
A medical report.
“Your mother's records were altered.”
Mom stared.
“How do you know?”
“The original hospital system shows poisoning.”
Her hands began to shake.
“Why would anyone kill her?”
Vincent looked at the files.
“Because she knew about the list.”
Mom closed her eyes.
Then she noticed something.
A small red mark on the report.
“That's my mother's handwriting.”
Vincent leaned closer.
Under the report were four words.
ASK ABOUT ROOM 77.
Mom looked at him.
“What is Room 77?”
They traced the hospital records.
Room 77 had been removed from the building twenty years ago.
Officially, it never existed.
Unofficially, three patients had been treated there.
All disappeared.
One of them was Claire Monroe.
The second was Daniel Carter.
The third was Vincent's father.
Vincent stared at the screen.
“They were all there.”
Mom whispered:
“Together.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Vincent called Claire.
No answer.
He tracked her last known location.
Another abandoned building.
We arrived at an old psychiatric hospital.
The corridors smelled of dust.
Room numbers had been removed.
Except one.
The door was locked.
Vincent forced it open.
Inside was a single chair.
A camera.
A mirror.
And writing on the wall.
REMEMBER WHO YOU WERE BEFORE THEY TOLD YOU WHO YOU ARE.
Mom walked toward the mirror.
She stared at her reflection.
Then she whispered:
“I remember.”
Vincent watched.
“What?”
“The night Rory was born.”
Her memory returned in fragments.
Doctors.
A basement.
Daniel.
Claire.
Vincent's father.
A baby crying.
And a conversation.
“Take the child.”
“No.”
“Daniel, you don't have a choice.”
“There is always a choice.”
Vincent's father had stepped closer.
“Then choose.”
Daniel had looked at Mom.
And whispered:
“Run.”
Mom gasped.
Vincent asked:
“What happened next?”
“He gave me a key.”
“What key?”
Mom looked at the chair.
There was a hidden compartment beneath it.
Inside was a brass key.
Vincent recognized the symbol.
Northstar.
The key opened a locker at an old train station.
Inside was a small metal box.
Daniel's handwriting was on it.
FOR EMILY ONLY.
Mom opened it.
Inside was a letter.
She read silently.
Then her face broke.
“What?”
She handed it to Vincent.
He read.
The letter contained one sentence:
Rory was never the target. Emily was.
Mom stared.
“Why me?”
Vincent looked at the bottom.
Another sentence.
Because you were the only witness who survived.
Mom whispered:
“To what?”
Vincent turned the page.
There was a photograph.
Seventy-seven people.
All standing in one room.
But behind them was a person wearing a black mask.
Vincent zoomed in.
A small sign appeared on the wall.
PROJECT ASCENSION.
He stared at it.
Then his phone rang.
A voice whispered:
“Now you know what the seventy-seven days were really for.”
Vincent asked:
“Who are you?”
The caller answered:
“Ask Daniel why he chose your family.”
Then the call ended.
Vincent looked at Mom.
She was staring at the photograph.
At the back of the group stood a young man.
Daniel.
Beside him was Vincent's father.
And in front of them was a little girl.
Six years old.
Mom recognized her.
“That's Claire.”
Vincent corrected her.
“No.”
May you like
He pointed to the girl.
“That's your mother.”
