Chapter 11 - Elaine's SecretThey found Elaine in a motel outside Columbia.
She opened the door with tears already in her eyes.
“I knew you would come.”
Samuel stared.
“You helped move Avery.”
Elaine nodded.
“Rachel asked me to.”
“Why?”
“Because Jordan was coming.”
“You knew?”
“I saw him.”
“Then tell me what happened.”
Elaine stepped aside.
The room smelled of stale coffee and fear.
“I was with Rachel that night.”
“What did she tell you?”
“That someone had betrayed her.”
“Who?”
Elaine shook her head.
“She wouldn't say.”
“She trusted you.”
“She trusted me with Avery.”
Samuel's voice hardened.
“You watched Rachel die.”
Elaine began crying.
“No.”
“You were there.”
“I wasn't.”
“Then why are you in the photograph?”
Elaine wiped her face.
“Because Rachel gave Avery to me before she left.”
Samuel stopped.
“When?”
“11:22.”
The exact time in the ledger.
“She told me to drive east.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
“What happened to Rachel?”
“I don't know.”
Samuel didn't believe her.
Elaine looked at Avery.
“She told me one thing.”
“What?”
“She said that if anyone came looking for the child, I should tell them her mother was not dead.”
Silence.
Samuel stared.
“What did she mean?”
Elaine whispered:
“Rachel wanted someone to believe she was dead.”
Nora's eyes widened.
“Why?”
“Because she knew someone was watching hospitals, airports, and bank accounts.”
Samuel took one step forward.
“Where was she going?”
Elaine shook her head.
“I don't know.”
“You're lying.”
Elaine looked at Avery.
“Your daughter was alive when I last saw her.”
Samuel's voice cracked.
“You mean Rachel.”
“Yes.”
Avery suddenly spoke.
“Mommy came back.”
Everyone looked at her.
“What?”
Avery nodded.
“She came to the window.”
“When?”
“The night Daddy said she was dead.”
Samuel crouched.
“Tell me.”
Avery closed her eyes.
“Mommy said not to tell Daddy.”
“Did you see her face?”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
“She said, ‘Blue room.’”
Samuel looked at Nora.
“There's no blue room.”
Thomas spoke from the doorway.
“There is.”
Everyone turned.
Thomas had followed them.
“The old Vale hotel.”
Samuel remembered.
The hotel had burned fifteen years earlier.
Thomas continued:
“One room survived.”
They reached the abandoned hotel just after sunset.
The building was half-collapsed.
Only one wing remained.
Room 217 had a blue door.
Samuel used the key.
The room opened.
Inside was a bed.
A desk.
A suitcase.
And a mirror.
On the mirror was written:
HE WILL COME FOR AVERY.
Below it:
BUT HE IS NOT JORDAN.
Samuel turned.
Avery was gone.
“AVERY!”
Nora screamed.
Panic tore through the room.
Thomas ran into the hallway.
Samuel checked the bathroom.
Nothing.
The window was open.
On the floor lay the blue elastic.
Samuel picked it up.
His hand shook.
Then he heard a sound.
Avery's voice.
From inside the wall.
“Grandpa?”
Samuel turned.
A hidden panel opened.
Avery crawled out.
She was crying.
But she wasn't alone.
A woman stood behind her.
Samuel's heart stopped.
The woman looked exhausted.
Her hair was shorter.
Her face thinner.
But he knew her.
Everyone knew her.
Rachel.
Alive.
Samuel couldn't breathe.
Rachel looked at him.
“Dad.”
Samuel stepped backward.
“No.”
Rachel began crying.
“I couldn't come home.”
Samuel shook his head.
“Then why did we bury you?”
Rachel looked toward Avery.
“Because everyone wanted to know where I was.”
She walked closer.
“I needed them to think they had won.”
Samuel's voice broke.
“Who?”
Rachel looked at the hallway.
May you like
Then whispered:
“Madeline.”
