Chapter 13 - We reached the chapel through the underground passage.The building above was abandoned.
The stained-glass windows were broken.
Dust covered the pews.
The altar stood beneath a giant wooden cross.
Vanessa was waiting in the center aisle.
She looked exhausted.
“Where is Elias?”
“Not here.”
“Then who is controlling the cameras?”
She pointed at the altar.
“Your father.”
I stared at her.
“My father is dead.”
“No.”
“He's been lying to me for years.”
Vanessa nodded.
“Your father has been hiding behind Elias.”
I understood.
The man who had appeared in the warehouse wasn't Elias.
He was my father.
Elias was only the name used on paper.
The identity of my father had been buried years ago.
I turned toward Michael.
He looked at Vanessa.
“You told him?”
“She already knows.”
Claire stepped forward.
“Where's Lily?”
Vanessa looked behind me.
Lily was standing beside Sarah.
“Safe.”
Vanessa exhaled.
“Good.”
Then the chapel doors slammed shut.
Every candle along the walls lit at once.
A projector turned on.
Old film appeared across the altar wall.
A hospital.
A newborn Lily.
Claire in a hospital bed.
Me sleeping in a chair.
Then my mother appeared.
She entered the room.
She took Lily from the nurse.
She whispered something.
The film jumped.
A second room.
The red door.
My mother placed Lily in a crib.
Behind her was my grandfather.
Then my father.
Then Michael.
Then Claire.
Everyone in my family had known.
Except me.
I turned toward Claire.
“You knew?”
She shook her head.
“Not all of it.”
The film continued.
My mother opened a metal box.
Inside was a ledger.
She looked toward the camera.
Then directly at baby Lily.
She said something.
The audio was too damaged to hear.
Lily suddenly spoke.
“She said, ‘Remember this.’”
Everyone turned.
“How do you know?”
“I don't know.”
She covered her ears.
“It's in my head.”
The projector flickered.
A second video appeared.
My mother was older.
Terrified.
She was speaking into the camera.
“If you're seeing this, I'm already dead.”
My heart stopped.
“This family doesn't protect people. It protects secrets.”
She described Room Three.
Inside the vault was a ledger documenting every person who had been erased by the family.
Every witness.
Every payment.
Every death staged as an accident.
The ledger was evidence.
And she had hidden a copy.
Inside the Mercer house.
My mother continued:
“I couldn't destroy it.”
She looked toward the camera.
“So I hid the key where nobody would search.”
The video ended.
I stared at Lily.
She whispered:
“Behind the wall.”
My blood ran cold.
“The first wall?”
She shook her head.
“No.”
“Which wall?”
She pointed toward the altar.
“Here.”
Sarah moved the old wooden panel behind the cross.
There was a narrow cavity.
Inside was a metal box.
We pulled it out.
The lock was marked with the same family symbol as Room Three.
I opened it.
Inside was a ledger.
Black leather.
Heavy.
Old.
And on the first page was a list of names.
Every name had a date.
Every date had a payment.
My grandfather.
My father.
Michael.
Then my own name.
I stared.
Next to my name was a date.
Tomorrow.
But below it, another line had been added recently.
CLAIRE MERCER.
Today.
I looked at Claire.
“Why would they still want you dead?”
She stared at the page.
Then went pale.
“Because I know who ordered your mother's death.”
“Who?”
She looked at the chapel doors.
“I do.”
The doors opened.
My father walked inside.
No disguise.
No cameras.
No speakers.
Just him.
I hadn't seen him in twelve years.
He looked exactly as I remembered.
Older.
But alive.
He smiled at me.
“Hello, son.”
Sarah raised her weapon.
He didn't care.
He looked at Claire.
“You shouldn't have survived.”
Claire stepped in front of Lily.
“You should never have come back.”
My father smiled.
“I never left.”
Michael raised his gun.
“You killed Mom.”
Father looked at him.
“She knew too much.”
“You buried someone else.”
“She needed to disappear.”
“You let us mourn you.”
He shrugged.
“Grief is useful.”
I stepped forward.
“Why?”
He looked at me.
“Because you were the only member of this family innocent enough to inherit everything.”
I frowned.
“What does that mean?”
He smiled.
“The company.”
“The house?”
“No.”
He pointed at the ledger.
“The network.”
My stomach turned.
“You wanted me to take over.”
“Yes.”
“I would never.”
“You already did.”
I froze.
He smiled wider.
“Everything you've signed for the past six years was in your name.”
My blood ran cold.
“You don't own your company.”
He stepped closer.
“You are the owner.”
“Then what are you?”
He leaned toward me.
“Your administrator.”
Silence.
Then Lily whispered:
“Dad…”
She was staring at my father.
“I remember him.”
My father looked at her.
She pointed at his face.
“You were holding Grandpa's gun when Grandma died.”
May you like
My father's smile vanished.
For the first time, he looked afraid.
