Chapter 9 - Mom didn't sleep that night.Neither did Vincent.
They sat across from each other in the library while I slept upstairs.
Vincent placed a glass of water in front of her.
“Start with 2004.”
“I can't.”
“Try.”
Mom shook her head.
“I was nineteen.”
“What happened?”
“I worked two jobs.”
“Where?”
She closed her eyes.
“At Sterling's.”
Vincent leaned forward.
“You met David then?”
“No.”
“Who did you meet?”
She hesitated.
“A woman.”
“Claire?”
Mom nodded.
Vincent's expression changed.
“What did she want?”
“She said she was helping women who were being exploited.”
“For what?”
“I don't know.”
“What happened next?”
Mom's voice dropped.
“She took me somewhere.”
“Where?”
“I don't remember.”
Vincent waited.
Then Mom whispered:
“There was a room.”
“What kind?”
“Underground.”
Vincent went still.
“Sterling's?”
“No.”
She looked terrified.
“Kane's.”
Silence.
Vincent stood.
“My father?”
Mom nodded.
“I saw him.”
“What did he do?”
“He told me to forget everything.”
“Why?”
“Because I had seen something.”
“What?”
Mom began crying.
“A list.”
Vincent's jaw tightened.
“What list?”
“Seventy-seven names.”
Vincent stared at her.
“The original 77 List.”
Mom nodded.
“Every person was being moved somewhere.”
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
“You remembered none of this for twenty years?”
“I remembered pieces.”
“Why didn't you tell anyone?”
“Because every time I tried, I got sick.”
Vincent watched her.
“Someone conditioned you.”
Mom frowned.
“What?”
“Memory suppression.”
“That sounds impossible.”
“No.”
Vincent picked up his phone.
“My father had doctors.”
“For what?”
“People who needed to forget.”
Mom's face went pale.
“Why me?”
Vincent looked at her.
“That is the question.”
He opened an old archive.
A security photograph appeared.
A nineteen-year-old woman.
Mom.
Beside Vincent's father.
And holding a baby.
Mom stared.
“That isn't possible.”
Vincent zoomed in.
The baby had a red mark on the wrist.
A tiny crescent-shaped birthmark.
I had the same one.
Mom covered her mouth.
“That's Rory.”
Vincent looked at the date.
“Before you married Daniel.”
Mom shook her head.
“No.”
He zoomed in again.
The photograph was dated 2006.
The day I was born.
Mom whispered:
“I gave birth in a hospital.”
Vincent shook his head.
“This photograph was taken somewhere else.”
She stared.
“What are you saying?”
“I'm saying you were taken before Rory was born.”
Mom's hands trembled.
Then a voice came from the doorway.
“Because Rory wasn't supposed to be born.”
Everyone turned.
David Sterling stood there.
Two guards grabbed him.
Vincent walked toward him.
“How did you get inside?”
David smiled.
“Same way your father used to.”
Vincent's face hardened.
“Don't mention him.”
David laughed.
“You still think your father was dead?”
Vincent grabbed his collar.
“What did he do to my father?”
David whispered:
“He didn't kill him.”
Vincent stared.
“He helped him disappear.”
“Where?”
David looked at Mom.
“She knows.”
Mom shook her head.
“No.”
David smiled.
“Ask her what happened the night Rory was born.”
Vincent turned toward Mom.
She looked terrified.
David continued.
“Ask her who was in the room.”
Mom covered her ears.
“Stop.”
David's smile faded.
“Ask her who gave the order.”
Vincent demanded:
“Who?”
David looked at me upstairs.
Then said:
“Your father.”
Vincent released him.
“What?”
David laughed.
“Not Daniel.”
He pointed at Vincent.
“Yours.”
The library became silent.
May you like
Then someone upstairs screamed.
I woke up.
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