Chapter 7 - The Mother They Told Me Was Dead
The Photograph From Twelve Years Ago
My mother was supposed to have died when I was three.
That was the story.
She had been driving home.
The road was wet.
A truck crossed the centerline.
She never made it to the hospital.
My father told me she died instantly.
He cried when he told me.
Or at least, I remembered him crying.
Now I was looking at a photograph taken one year later.
My mother was alive.
Holding me.
Standing beside a younger version of my father.
And behind them was Colonel Voss.
“What is happening?” I whispered.
General Grant did not answer immediately.
He called headquarters.
Then he called the academy archives.
Then he called a retired intelligence officer.
Each conversation made the room colder.
Finally, he sat beside me.
“Emma, there are parts of your father's history that were sealed.”
“Why?”
“Because he served in an operation that officially never existed.”
“Was my mother part of it?”
“Yes.”
I stared at the photograph.
“So she didn't die?”
Grant looked at me.
“We don't know.”
That sentence almost destroyed me.
“What do you mean, you don't know?”
“The accident was real. The death certificate is real. But the hospital records were altered.”
My hands trembled.
“Altered by who?”
“That's what we're trying to determine.”
I called Dad.
His phone was still at the academy.
I called Sandra.
She didn't answer.
I called Brooke.
She answered after three rings.
“Emma?”
“Where's Dad?”
“I don't know.”
“Where's Sandra?”
“She left.”
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
There was a pause.
Then Brooke whispered,
“I saw something.”
“What?”
“Dad arguing with Mom last night.”
“About what?”
“You.”
My heart stopped.
“Tell me.”
“He said the academy had gone too far.”
“What did Sandra say?”
“She said they would eventually discover everything.”
“What everything?”
Brooke started crying.
“I don't know.”
“You do.”
“I heard Mom say, ‘If Emma finds out who her mother really was, we're finished.’”
The phone nearly slipped from my hand.
“Brooke.”
“Yes?”
“Your mother knew my mother was alive.”
“I think so.”
The line went silent.
Then Brooke said something that changed everything.
“Emma, Mom wasn't always called Sandra.”
I frowned.
“What?”
“She had another name.”
“What name?”
Before she could answer, I heard a man's voice in the background.
Brooke screamed.
The call ended.
I stood up.
General Grant immediately reached for his phone.
“We need to locate her.”
Within minutes, security traced Brooke's phone.
It was moving.
Fast.
Toward the old industrial district.
Grant looked at me.
“You stay here.”
“No.”
“Emma.”
“She knows something.”
“She may also be in danger.”
“Exactly.”
He studied me.
Then he sighed.
“Fine. You stay with my security team.”
We arrived twenty-five minutes later.
The warehouse door was open.
Inside, Brooke was sitting on the floor.
Sandra was gone.
Dad was gone.
A broken chair lay beside her.
She looked up at me.
Her face was streaked with tears.
“They took her.”
“Who?”
“My mother.”
“Who took her?”
Brooke swallowed.
“Your mother.”
I froze.
“What?”
“She wasn't dead.”
General Grant stepped forward.
“Start from the beginning.”
Brooke stared at me.
“She has been alive for years.”
I couldn't move.
“Where?”
“I don't know.”
“Who is she?”
Brooke closed her eyes.
Then whispered a name I had never heard.
“Evelyn Cross.”
I looked at General Grant.
He looked shocked.
Because apparently, he knew that name.
“Who is Evelyn Cross?”
Grant didn't answer.
He simply looked at me and said,
“Your mother was one of the country's most important intelligence analysts.”
May you like
Then he added,
“And twelve years ago, she disappeared while investigating your father.”
