Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN WHO DIED
I couldn't breathe.
“My mother is dead.”
Evelyn didn't argue.
“She was declared dead.”
“That's different.”
“Yes.”
I stared at her.
“What are you saying?”
“Your mother disappeared.”
Marcus looked confused.
Camille looked terrified.
Evelyn opened an old newspaper clipping.
The headline read:
LOCAL WOMAN PRESUMED DEAD AFTER HIGHWAY CRASH.
The photograph was my mother.
I remembered that day.
The funeral.
The flowers.
The closed casket.
My father's face.
But there had always been one strange detail.
He never let me see her body.
I had been twelve.
I had accepted his explanation.
Now everything felt wrong.
“Why would my father tell me she died?”
“Because someone wanted her dead.”
“Who?”
Evelyn looked at the Blackwood documents.
“The same people who wanted your father silent.”
My hands trembled.
“Where is she?”
“I don't know.”
“You said she was alive.”
“She was alive when your father last saw her.”
“When?”
“Six years ago.”
I stared at Evelyn.
Six years.
That meant my father had known she was alive shortly before his own death.
“Why didn't he tell me?”
“Because he believed telling you would put you in danger.”
I looked at Marcus.
“Did you know?”
He shook his head.
“No.”
For once, I believed him.
Evelyn continued.
“Your father left instructions.”
She handed me a sealed envelope.
My name was written on it.
I opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
My mother.
Standing outside a small coastal house.
On the back, my father's handwriting read:
When Marcus betrays you, trust Evelyn.
I stared at the words.
My father had somehow predicted this.
But there was something else.
A second line.
The house isn't what they want.
I looked at Evelyn.
“What do they want?”
She hesitated.
“The thing hidden beneath it.”
I felt a chill move through me.
“What is beneath my house?”
Evelyn looked toward the floor.
“Evidence.”
Suddenly, a loud crash came from upstairs.
Everyone froze.
Evelyn reached for her phone.
Marcus whispered:
“Someone else is here.”
Then we heard footsteps.
Slow.
May you like
Heavy.
Coming down the staircase.
