Chapter 3 - Ryan locked every door in the house.Then he closed every curtain.
Lily sat at the kitchen table, wrapped in Noah's oversized hoodie.
Noah sat beside her.
The two children had barely spoken.
They simply held hands.
Ryan stood across from them.
“Lily, I need you to tell me everything.”
She looked toward the hallway.
“Can he hear us?”
“Who?”
She whispered:
“Grandfather.”
Ryan felt a chill.
“You said he was Emily’s father.”
Lily nodded.
“What is his name?”
“Victor.”
Ryan knew the name.
Victor Hale.
He had heard it exactly once.
Six years earlier.
At Lily's funeral.
A man had stood at the back of the church wearing a gray coat.
Emily had told Ryan not to speak to him.
Ryan had never understood why.
He remembered the man's eyes.
Cold.
Still.
Watching him.
Ryan swallowed.
“Did your grandfather put you under the floor?”
Lily nodded.
“Why?”
“He said you couldn't know I was alive.”
“Why?”
“Because you would take me away.”
Ryan's voice broke.
“From who?”
“From Mom.”
Ryan stared.
“You mean Emily?”
Lily nodded.
Ryan looked at Noah.
The boy had stopped eating.
Ryan turned back.
“What did your mother do?”
Lily looked down.
“She gave me medicine.”
“What medicine?”
“I don't know.”
“Why?”
“So I would sleep.”
Ryan's jaw clenched.
“How long have you been down there?”
Lily held up six fingers.
“Since I was little.”
“Six years?”
She nodded.
Ryan backed away.
Impossible.
If Lily had been alive, Emily had been hiding her for six years.
But why?
Why had she lived underground?
Why had Ryan never discovered the room?
Why had Emily married him?
And why was Noah secretly feeding her?
Ryan looked at his son.
“Noah. How long have you known?”
Noah hesitated.
“Three months.”
Ryan stared.
“Three months?”
Noah nodded.
“She started knocking.”
“What did she say?”
“That she was hungry.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“She made me promise.”
“Why?”
Noah looked at Lily.
“Because Mom said she'd hurt you.”
Ryan's stomach twisted.
He crouched beside his son.
“Mom said she'd hurt me?”
Noah nodded.
“She told me if I told you, Dad would disappear.”
Ryan closed his eyes.
He suddenly remembered months of strange things.
Emily locking the basement door.
Emily refusing to let workers inspect the foundation.
Emily insisting the kitchen grate remain untouched.
Emily becoming panicked whenever Ryan mentioned renovations.
He had dismissed everything.
Because he trusted her.
Now he wondered whether trust was the reason he had lost six years.
A sound came from the front hallway.
Three slow knocks.
Ryan stood.
Lily immediately crawled under the table.
Noah grabbed Ryan's shirt.
Someone knocked again.
Ryan moved toward the front door.
“Stay here.”
He checked the security camera.
Nothing.
Empty porch.
He opened the door.
No one.
But a small brown envelope sat on the doorstep.
Ryan picked it up.
Inside was a photograph.
He stared.
It showed Emily holding a newborn baby.
Beside her stood Victor Hale.
And between them was another man.
Ryan didn't recognize him.
The baby was Lily.
The photo was dated seven years ago.
Ryan turned it over.
A message was written on the back.
ASK YOUR WIFE WHO THE OTHER FATHER IS.
Ryan stopped breathing.
He flipped the photograph again.
The stranger's face suddenly looked familiar.
Not because Ryan knew him.
Because he had seen him before.
In the family pictures hanging upstairs.
Ryan ran to the living room.
He stared at the framed wedding photograph.
There was Emily.
There was Ryan.
There was the man standing behind them.
Same face.
Same eyes.
Same expression.
Ryan stepped backward.
He grabbed another frame.
A family Christmas.
There he was again.
And another photo.
Graduation.
Again.
He had been in their lives for years.
Ryan's hands began shaking.
He knew exactly who the man was.
His own older brother.
Daniel Mercer.
The brother who had supposedly died overseas eight years ago.
Ryan stared at the photograph.
“No.”
Lily emerged from beneath the table.
She looked at the stranger in the photo.
Then at Ryan.
And whispered:
“That's not Daniel.”
Ryan turned.
“What?”
She pointed to the man's face.
“That's the man who visits me.”
Ryan felt the room go silent.
“My brother died.”
Lily shook her head.
“No.”
She looked terrified.
“Your brother is the reason I'm alive.”
Ryan's phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
A man's voice said:
“You have twenty-four hours.”
“Who is this?”
“You know me.”
“I don't.”
The voice laughed quietly.
“Yes, you do.”
Then it said:
“Look behind you.”
Ryan turned.
Lily was staring at the kitchen.
At the grate.
Something was moving beneath it.
A thin object slowly emerged through the opening.
A white envelope.
Ryan walked toward it.
On the envelope was written:
FOR RYAN.
He opened it.
Inside was a single ultrasound photograph.
May you like
And beneath the image were six words:
YOUR DAUGHTER WAS NEVER THE FIRST.
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