Chapter 8 - The Woman in the PhotographEthan stopped breathing.
“No.”
Hale laughed softly.
“You never questioned the body.”
“Because I saw her funeral.”
“You saw a body.”
Ethan felt dizzy.
Hale continued.
“Grace was intelligent. She anticipated what I would do.”
“Where is she?”
“That's the question you should have asked two years ago.”
Ethan gripped the phone.
“Where is my wife?”
Hale smiled.
“Find the blue room.”
The call ended.
For several seconds, no one moved.
Claire was crying.
Daniel looked at Ethan.
“I don't know if he's telling the truth.”
Ethan turned.
“He is.”
“How do you know?”
“Because Hale never lies when the truth hurts more.”
Ethan ran upstairs.
He went straight to Grace’s old room.
The room had been untouched for two years.
Her books.
Her perfume.
Her old sweater hanging behind the door.
Everything still there.
He opened the wardrobe.
Nothing.
Then Ellie appeared in the doorway.
“Mister Ethan?”
Maria tried to stop her.
But Ellie walked into the room.
She looked around.
Then she pointed toward Grace’s vanity.
“There.”
Ethan crouched.
“What?”
“Behind the picture.”
He moved a framed photograph.
A small key fell out.
He stared at it.
A tiny blue stone was attached.
He remembered the greenhouse key Claire had possessed.
This was different.
He inserted it into a narrow lock beneath the vanity drawer.
The drawer opened.
Inside was a notebook.
Grace’s handwriting.
The first page contained only one sentence.
If Ethan is reading this, I failed to make him remember.
Ethan flipped pages.
Names.
Dates.
Chemical formulas.
Photos.
One photo made him stop.
Grace was standing beside a hospital bed.
A woman lay beneath the sheets.
Ethan recognized the hospital.
The same one where Grace had supposedly died.
The woman in the bed had dark hair.
Her face was partially hidden.
But Ethan knew that face.
His heart slammed.
“That's Grace.”
Claire stepped behind him.
“Yes.”
“When was this?”
“Two years ago.”
Ethan flipped another page.
A hospital record.
Patient: Jane Doe.
But beneath it was a handwritten note.
Grace Caldwell.
His hands began to shake.
Then he found a final photograph.
Grace was sitting in a wheelchair.
Alive.
Holding a piece of paper.
On it was written:
Victor Hale knows.
Ethan looked at Claire.
“What happened after this?”
Claire swallowed.
“Hale moved her.”
“To where?”
“I don't know.”
“Who does?”
Claire pointed toward the window.
“The person Grace trusted most.”
Ethan frowned.
“Who?”
Claire’s voice became almost inaudible.
“Your mother.”
Ethan stared at her.
“My mother is dead.”
Claire shook her head.
“No.”
Ethan went still.
“She died last year.”
Claire looked at Daniel.
Daniel closed his eyes.
Then Claire whispered:
“That funeral wasn't real either.”
Ethan felt the room tilt.
“How many people in my life are actually dead?”
Before anyone could answer, a gunshot exploded downstairs.
Ellie screamed.
Then a second shot.
Daniel ran.
Ethan followed.
On the staircase, they found Maria.
She was on the floor.
Blood covered her dress.
May you like
And in her hand…
she held a blue cup.
