Chapter 7 - The RecordingThey played the tape in the library.
Static.
Breathing.
Then Elena’s voice.
“If you're hearing this, Gabriel, something has gone wrong.”
Gabriel stopped moving.
Claire watched his face.
He looked suddenly younger.
Broken.
Elena continued.
“Do not trust Evelyn.”
A pause.
“She will tell you that I betrayed you.”
Another pause.
“She will show you documents.”
Gabriel's eyes narrowed.
“They will all be real.”
Claire felt a chill.
Elena continued.
“But they will all be incomplete.”
The tape clicked.
A second voice appeared.
A man's voice.
Gabriel went pale.
Claire noticed.
“Who is that?”
Gabriel didn't answer.
The voice said:
“You have forty-eight hours.”
Then static.
“Choose your daughter.”
The tape ended.
Gabriel stood abruptly.
“Who was the man?”
“My father.”
Claire stared.
“Your father is dead.”
“I know.”
“Then that's impossible.”
Gabriel looked at the tape.
“He died eighteen years ago.”
Lily suddenly pointed toward the speaker.
“He was there.”
“Who?”
“The man from the red door.”
Gabriel turned.
Lily was trembling.
“He wore Daddy's watch.”
Gabriel looked down.
The watch on his wrist was an heirloom.
His father's.
Claire understood.
“Someone has been pretending to be dead.”
Gabriel nodded.
“And whoever it is knows exactly how to control my family.”
That night, Lily finally asked for water.
Claire held the cup.
Lily took one tiny sip.
Everyone in the room stared.
Then another.
Then another.
Dr. Price cried silently.
Gabriel looked away.
Claire smiled.
But before she could celebrate, Lily whispered:
“I drank because Claire smells like Mommy.”
Claire froze.
Gabriel looked at her sharply.
“What?”
Lily pointed toward Claire's sweater.
“There.”
Claire touched the fabric.
A tiny gold thread was caught in the sleeve.
Not gold.
Silk.
Perfumed.
And underneath it was a tiny embroidered symbol.
A sparrow.
Claire stared.
“I don't own this.”
Gabriel examined it.
His expression darkened.
“Elena wore that symbol.”
“Why would it be on my clothes?”
Nobody answered.
Lily did.
“Because Mommy gave it to you.”
Claire swallowed.
“When?”
Lily's eyes widened.
“In the red-door house.”
Claire's entire body went cold.
She had never been there.
Had she?
Then something inside her memory shifted.
A smell.
A red hallway.
A child crying.
A woman's voice.
May you like
And a sentence Claire suddenly remembered hearing when she was eight years old:
Never open the red door.
