Chapter 8 - The psychiatric hospital had been abandoned for nearly a decade.Broken windows.
Collapsed hallways.
Graffiti covering the walls.
Nathan entered through the emergency entrance with Victoria behind him.
A voice echoed through the darkness.
“Keep walking.”
Nathan followed.
The corridor opened into the old therapy wing.
A single chair sat beneath a hanging light.
Noah was sitting in it.
Alive.
Unharmed.
Nathan ran toward him.
“Dad!”
Nathan dropped to his knees and hugged him.
Noah clung to him.
“You came.”
“I'm here.”
Victoria approached.
Noah looked at her.
Then suddenly screamed.
“She knows him!”
Nathan turned.
“Who?”
Noah pointed toward the doorway.
“The man with Mommy.”
Nathan stood.
A shadow moved.
Someone stepped into the light.
Nathan stopped breathing.
The man looked like him.
Same eyes.
Same jaw.
Same scar above the eyebrow.
Nathan whispered:
“Ethan.”
The man smiled.
“Finally.”
Victoria began crying.
“You're alive.”
Ethan looked at her.
“You knew.”
“For years.”
“You told everyone I was dead.”
“You were supposed to be.”
Nathan stepped forward.
“Where have you been?”
Ethan stared at him.
“Where have you been?”
Nathan shook his head.
“I don't remember you.”
Ethan laughed.
“That's because Dad made sure you didn't.”
Nathan felt a migraine surge behind his eyes.
Ethan approached.
“You were there the night he killed our mother.”
Nathan froze.
“What?”
“Our father didn't just run a criminal empire.”
Ethan's voice cracked.
“He controlled people.”
“People like Emma?”
“Yes.”
“Why did he kill her?”
“He didn't.”
Nathan stopped.
Ethan continued:
“Emma survived.”
Nathan looked toward Victoria.
She nodded.
“She survived the crash.”
“Then where is she?”
Ethan looked at Noah.
“Ask him.”
Nathan's face tightened.
“Noah doesn't know.”
Ethan crouched.
“Noah knows more than you think.”
Nathan turned toward his son.
“Noah?”
The little boy looked frightened.
“Mommy told me to remember.”
“Remember what?”
“The house under the house.”
Nathan stared.
“The hidden room?”
Noah shook his head.
“Another one.”
Ethan nodded.
“Exactly.”
Nathan looked at Victoria.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“And you never told me.”
“I was trying to keep you alive.”
Ethan laughed.
“You still think that's possible.”
Then a gunshot echoed from the hallway.
Ethan shoved Nathan to the floor.
Victoria grabbed Noah.
People in black flooded the corridor.
Ethan fired back.
Nathan dragged Noah behind a wall.
“What is happening?”
Ethan shouted:
“They're here for the child!”
“What child?”
“Noah!”
Nathan looked at his son.
“Why?”
Ethan shouted:
“Because he's the biological heir to your father's network!”
Nathan stared.
“He's what?”
“Your father put everything in Noah's bloodline.”
Nathan looked at Victoria.
She nodded through tears.
“Emma was pregnant with him before she disappeared.”
“But Noah isn't mine.”
“No.”
Nathan's voice cracked.
“Then whose son is he?”
Ethan looked at Nathan.
“Mine.”
Silence.
Nathan stared.
“What?”
Ethan nodded.
“Emma was carrying my child.”
Nathan stepped backward.
“No.”
“She married you to protect him.”
Nathan's mind collapsed under the weight of it.
All the memories.
All the lies.
Every missing piece.
Emma had loved Ethan before Nathan ever met her.
His own brother.
Nathan's brother.
The man he had forgotten.
Ethan continued:
“Dad found out.”
Nathan whispered:
“And Emma?”
“She ran.”
“Why didn't she tell me?”
“Because you were the only person our father couldn't control.”
Nathan looked at him.
“Then why erase my memory?”
Ethan's voice became quiet.
“Because you tried to save her.”
Nathan closed his eyes.
He saw flashes.
A car.
Rain.
Emma screaming.
His father holding a gun.
Ethan bleeding on the floor.
Victoria shouting.
Nathan driving.
Then darkness.
He staggered.
“I remember.”
Victoria went pale.
“What?”
Nathan looked at her.
“You were there.”
She nodded.
“You were holding Emma.”
Nathan whispered:
“She wasn't dead.”
“No.”
“She was alive.”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
Victoria's tears fell.
“She told me to choose.”
“Choose what?”
“You.”
Nathan frowned.
“She chose you,” Victoria whispered.
Nathan stared.
“She gave me Noah and told me to keep him safe.”
“Where is Emma now?”
Victoria opened her mouth.
Then the lights went out.
Ethan shouted:
“Down!”
A bullet struck the wall.
When the emergency lights returned...
Victoria was gone.
So was Noah.
Nathan spun around.
“Noah!”
The room was empty.
Ethan stared at the door.
“She took him.”
Nathan turned.
“Victoria?”
Ethan nodded.
“She always knew where the second safe house was.”
Nathan's phone vibrated.
A message appeared.
COME TO YOUR FATHER'S GRAVE ALONE.
Then another message.
A photograph.
Victoria holding Noah.
And behind them...
a woman stood in the darkness.
Long hair.
Pale face.
Alive.
Nathan stared at the screen.
May you like
He knew that face.
Emma.
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