Chapter 14 - The Last RecordingWe returned to the house.
Police surrounded the property.
Every light was on.
Every door was locked.
Nothing moved.
Cole entered first.
I followed.
The house looked exactly as we'd left it.
Except for one thing.
Emma's stuffed rabbit sat in the center of the dining table.
A red stain marked one ear.
Claire froze.
“No.”
“What?”
“He found it.”
“Found what?”
She pointed toward the rabbit.
“The original recording.”
I cut it open.
Inside was a tiny digital recorder.
The final piece of the puzzle.
I pressed play.
Claire's voice.
“Daniel, if you're hearing this, everything failed.”
She sounded exhausted.
“I need you to remember the warehouse.”
“Those children weren't subjects.”
“They were witnesses.”
“They had seen Michael, Adrian, Martin, and Eleanor stealing medical data.”
The project wasn't originally about psychology.
It had begun as a medical-data theft operation.
Children had accidentally witnessed it.
The adults involved created the surveillance program to identify who knew what.
The experiments came later.
The recordings became valuable.
Threats became profitable.
Families could be blackmailed.
Records altered.
People controlled.
Claire continued.
“Martin Crowe died because he wanted to stop them.”
“Adrian stayed because he was afraid.”
“Michael stayed because he believed the project could be controlled.”
“And Eleanor…”
Claire paused.
“She wanted everything.”
I looked toward the window.
“Why Emma?”
Claire's voice became quieter.
“Because she remembers the night you saved Lily.”
I listened harder.
“Lily wasn't the Harris daughter.”
“What?”
“The girl you thought was Lily was actually a witness.”
“The real Lily was already dead.”
“The family we saw was another family entirely.”
I felt dizzy.
Claire continued.
“Emma saw Eleanor transfer the final evidence.”
“That's why they watched her.”
“She knew.”
The recording ended.
Then another began.
Emma's voice.
Four years old.
“Daddy, the lady took the box.”
My body went cold.
The box.
Claire's lockbox.
We had been chasing the wrong box.
The real box had been hidden elsewhere.
Cole looked at me.
“Where?”
I suddenly knew.
My late brother Michael's grave.
We drove there.
Under the stone was a metal compartment.
Inside:
The original evidence.
Names.
Bank records.
Hospital records.
Videos.
Everything.
And one letter from Michael.
Daniel,
I thought I could control them.
I was wrong.
I believed we could destroy the project from inside.
Instead, I became part of it.
Claire tried to stop me.
I let them take her.
I let them take the children.
I thought I could save them later.
I couldn't.
The last page said:
Eleanor is coming for Emma.
We heard a sound behind us.
Footsteps.
Cole turned.
Eleanor stood between the trees.
Older.
Elegant.
Calm.
Holding a gun.
“You always were your mother's stubborn son.”
I stared at her.
“You aren't my mother.”
“No.”
“Why did you pretend?”
“To see how much you remembered.”
She looked toward Emma.
“And how much she remembered.”
Claire stepped in front of her.
“You won't touch her.”
Eleanor smiled.
“I don't need to.”
She raised her phone.
A live video appeared.
Vanessa.
Bound.
In the back of a car.
“Let her go.”
Eleanor shook her head.
“You still misunderstand.”
“She isn't the hostage.”
I looked at Emma.
Eleanor smiled.
“She is the key.”
A vehicle screeched somewhere beyond the cemetery.
Police lights flashed.
Eleanor dropped the phone.
In the chaos, she disappeared.
We freed Vanessa.
Then Cole checked the live feed.
The location was still transmitting.
A warehouse.
Only one problem.
It wasn't Eleanor's location.
May you like
It was ours.
The signal was coming from inside my house.
