Chapter 10 - Beneath the Mercer HouseEthan returned to the old Mercer estate.
His childhood home had been abandoned after his father's death.
Dust covered the halls.
The basement still smelled of damp wood.
He remembered something his father used to say.
Never trust a house that has no locked rooms.
As a child, Ethan thought it was nonsense.
Now he understood.
He searched every wall.
Nothing.
Then he saw an old fireplace.
One brick was different.
He pressed it.
A section of wall opened.
Behind it was a staircase.
Natalie followed him down.
The room beneath the house looked ancient.
Documents filled the shelves.
Photographs hung from the walls.
At the center was a metal safe.
Ethan used the blue key.
It opened.
Inside was a single cassette tape.
And a handwritten note.
Play this when Sophie is safe.
Ethan looked at Natalie.
“She isn't safe.”
“Then don't play it.”
“I need answers.”
He inserted the tape into an old player.
A voice filled the room.
His father.
“Ethan, if you are hearing this, I failed.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
“I discovered Daniel Vale's operations years ago. I thought I could destroy him from inside.”
His father's voice trembled.
“I was wrong.”
The recording continued.
“Claire found me. We worked together. We created the Blue Trust so the evidence would survive us.”
Ethan stared at the machine.
“The trust is not just money. It contains encrypted records of every transaction, every death, every person bought.”
A pause.
“And Sophie is the legal heir.”
Ethan's heart pounded.
“That's why they will come for her.”
His father's voice lowered.
“There is one person I do not trust.”
Static.
Then:
“Marcus Reed.”
The recording ended.
Ethan stared at Natalie.
Neither spoke.
Suddenly the basement door slammed shut.
Someone was upstairs.
Then another sound.
Footsteps.
Several people.
Natalie looked at the ceiling.
“They found us.”
Ethan grabbed the cassette.
A voice came through an old speaker.
Marcus.
“Ethan, you have been remarkably difficult to kill.”
Ethan shouted:
“Where is Sophie?”
Marcus laughed.
“She is where she belongs.”
“Bring her here.”
“No.”
“You want the trust?”
“I already have most of it.”
“Then why do you need Sophie?”
Silence.
Then Marcus answered:
“Because Claire never told you the final condition.”
“What condition?”
Marcus's voice became almost gentle.
“The trust doesn't unlock when Sophie turns eighteen.”
Ethan froze.
“It unlocks when she remembers.”
“Remembers what?”
Marcus spoke five words.
“Who her mother really was.”
Ethan turned toward Natalie.
“What does that mean?”
Natalie looked terrified.
“She knows.”
“Knows what?”
“The crash.”
Ethan shook his head.
“She was two years old.”
Natalie whispered:
“She was there.”
Silence filled the room.
Ethan suddenly remembered something.
Sophie had nightmares.
Always the same words.
Blue light.
A screaming woman.
A man saying:
Run.
He had assumed it was childhood imagination.
Now he knew.
Sophie remembered the night her mother disappeared.
And somewhere in her seven-year-old mind was the truth.
The door upstairs exploded open.
Marcus shouted:
“Bring me the girl!”
Ethan looked at Natalie.
“We're going to get our daughter.”
Natalie nodded.
But neither noticed the camera hidden in the corner.
Recording everything.
May you like
And on the other side of the screen, Claire watched.
Her expression was unreadable.
