CHAPTER 5 The Gardener's Secret
The security room fell into stunned silence.
The blurry surveillance image remained frozen on the monitor.
An elderly man in muddy boots pushed a rusted wheelbarrow toward the servants' gate.
Hidden beneath a pile of gardening tools...
Was a military-grade encrypted radio.
Ethan stared at the screen.
"No..."
Daniel zoomed in.
The image sharpened just enough to reveal the man's weathered face.
There was no mistake.
Arthur Collins.
The Blackwood estate's head gardener.
For thirty-one years.
Arthur had planted every tree on the property.
He had taught Ethan how to graft roses when he was twelve.
He had attended Ethan and Amelia's wedding.
He had stood silently at Amelia's funeral, tears streaming down his face.
And now...
He was carrying equipment that belonged in a covert military operation.
Daniel's voice hardened.
"Seal every exit."
"Arthur doesn't leave this estate."
Three security officers sprinted toward the gardens.
Rain lashed against the greenhouse as they spread across the grounds.
The gardener's cottage sat near the eastern wall.
Its front door stood open.
The lights were still on.
One officer cautiously stepped inside.
"Clear!"
The tiny house looked perfectly ordinary.
A kettle still steamed on the stove.
A newspaper lay folded on the table.
A pair of muddy gloves rested beside a half-finished crossword puzzle.
It looked as though Arthur had simply stepped outside.
Then another officer noticed something strange.
"Sir..."
He knelt beside the fireplace.
Fresh ashes.
Too fresh.
Using a metal poker, he stirred the remains.
Half-burned documents appeared beneath the charcoal.
Most had been destroyed.
One survived.
Just enough to read three words.
PROJECT EDEN.
Back inside the mansion...
Ethan's phone vibrated.
A countdown.
00:36:12
Victor wasn't calling.
He was reminding him.
Time was running out.
Lily glanced nervously at the screen.
"He's watching us."
Daniel looked around the room.
"How do you know?"
She pointed toward a grandfather clock in the corner.
"He hid cameras inside clocks."
Daniel frowned.
"How would you know that?"
Lily answered without thinking.
"Because they always watched us while we slept."
Daniel immediately dismantled the clock.
Behind the pendulum...
A tiny camera blinked once before going dark.
Every face in the room changed.
If there was one...
There were more.
Within minutes, the security team found twelve hidden cameras throughout the mansion.
Some had been there for years.
One was hidden inside Amelia's portrait.
Another inside Ethan's office bookshelf.
Another beneath the nursery ceiling molding that had never been used after the hospital fire.
Victor had been watching the family long before Lily arrived.
Samuel sat alone, staring at the hospital bracelet labeled BABY GIRL BLACKWOOD.
Something didn't fit.
He compared it to the holographic blueprint Victor had shown them.
Thirty-eight rooms.
Thirty-eight subjects.
Then he looked back at Lily.
Subject Seven.
Why Seven?
If she had been born the night of the fire...
Where had Subjects One through Six come from?
His thoughts were interrupted by Nora.
"There weren't thirty-eight children."
Samuel looked up.
"What?"
"There were never that many."
"You said there were."
"No."
"I said there were more beds."
She swallowed.
"The rooms kept changing."
"Children disappeared."
"New ones arrived."
Samuel felt a chill.
"They were replacing them."
Nora slowly nodded.
"I think..."
"...Lily was the only one who stayed."
Daniel's radio crackled.
"We found Arthur!"
Everyone rushed to the security monitors.
The gardener was running through the estate's botanical maze despite his age.
Not stumbling.
Not panicking.
Running with the speed and precision of someone decades younger.
Daniel narrowed his eyes.
"That's impossible."
Arthur was seventy-two.
Yet he moved like a trained operative.
The pursuit lasted less than three minutes.
Arthur reached the center of the hedge maze.
Then...
He stopped.
He slowly raised both hands.
When the officers surrounded him, he smiled.
"I was wondering when you'd find me."
Daniel stepped forward.
"Hands behind your back."
Arthur obeyed without resistance.
Ethan arrived seconds later.
Rain soaked his suit as he stared at the old man.
"Why?"
Arthur looked genuinely saddened.
"I hoped you'd never have to ask me that."
"You betrayed my family."
Arthur lowered his eyes.
"I protected your daughter."
The words hit Ethan like a hammer.
"What did you say?"
"I watched over Lily."
"For seven years."
"You expect me to believe that?"
Arthur gave a tired smile.
"You think Victor hid cameras because he trusted Nora?"
"No."
"He hid them because he never trusted me."
Daniel searched Arthur's pockets.
He found no weapon.
Only a small brass key.
The same flower symbol engraved on it...
Matched the music box.
Nora gasped.
"That's the second key."
Arthur looked at her.
"You kept the first."
"I kept the second."
Ethan stepped closer.
"What does it open?"
Arthur hesitated.
"Hope."
Nobody understood.
Arthur looked toward Lily.
She was staring at him with wide eyes.
"I know you."
The old gardener smiled gently.
"I know."
"You used to bring me apples."
Arthur nodded.
"The green ones."
"They were your favorite."
Lily's eyes filled with tears.
"You weren't one of the bad men."
"No."
"I wasn't."
Ethan looked from Lily to Arthur.
"You've met before?"
Arthur answered quietly.
"Many times."
Daniel lost his patience.
"Enough riddles!"
He slammed Arthur against the stone wall.
"Start talking."
Arthur didn't resist.
Instead, he looked directly at Ethan.
"The night of the fire..."
"...I carried your daughter."
Silence.
Even the rain seemed to stop.
Ethan whispered,
"What?"
Arthur closed his eyes.
"The nurse wasn't alone."
"I was there."
"I carried Lily through the smoke."
"I placed her in Nora's arms."
Nora nodded through tears.
"It's true."
Arthur continued.
"I thought she would protect the child."
"I was wrong."
Ethan's voice trembled with rage.
"Then why didn't you come to me?"
Arthur's answer came immediately.
"Because Victor already owned the police."
"The courts."
"The hospital."
"The board."
"And half your security staff."
"If I had brought Lily back..."
"...she would've disappeared before sunrise."
Daniel slowly released Arthur.
Every word sounded insane.
Yet somehow...
Every word fit.
Arthur reached into his coat.
This time Daniel allowed it.
The old man removed a faded photograph.
Amelia.
Holding newborn Lily.
Standing beside...
Arthur.
The date stamped on the back was two days after the hospital fire.
Ethan stared in disbelief.
His wife had survived.
His daughter had survived.
And Arthur had been with them.
Arthur handed Ethan the brass key.
"You'll need this."
"For what?"
"The real entrance."
Samuel looked up sharply.
"There is another entrance?"
Arthur nodded.
"The blueprint Victor showed you was fake."
"I helped build the facility."
"There are four entrances."
"Not three."
Daniel unfolded the holographic map again.
Arthur pointed toward an empty section.
"There."
"There should be a tunnel."
"There isn't."
Arthur smiled sadly.
"Exactly."
"They erased it."
Ethan's countdown read:
00:24:18
Twenty-four minutes left.
Arthur looked him in the eye.
"If you go through the main entrance..."
"...you'll never reach Amelia."
"But if you trust me..."
"...I can take you to a door Victor believes no one remembers."
Before Ethan could answer...
A deafening explosion erupted from beneath the greenhouse.
The ground shook violently.
Stone pathways cracked apart.
A hidden steel hatch burst open beneath the roses Amelia had planted years ago.
Black smoke poured into the night sky.
Arthur's face turned white.
"They found the tunnel..."
Then dozens of armed figures began climbing out of the underground passage.
But these men wore white uniforms, not black.
Each carried the same strange insignia stitched over the chest:
EDEN SECURITY DIVISION
Arthur whispered in horror,
"No..."
"They weren't supposed to come this early."
At the front of the group stood a woman in a white lab coat.
She removed her protective mask.
Samuel staggered backward.
His face drained of all color.
"That's impossible..."
The woman smiled.
"Hello, Samuel."
"You've grown up."
He could barely breathe.
Because the woman standing before him...
Had died fifteen years ago.
May you like
"My mother...?"
END OF CHAPTER 5
