Chapter 6 - My Wife's Terrible Secret
Memory is a strange thing.
You can spend your entire life believing your childhood begins at one particular moment, only to discover there were rooms before that moment.
Faces.
Doors.
Sounds.
A whole world your mind buried.
When Detective Cole told me I'd lived in the house as a baby, something inside me shifted.
I remembered a hallway.
Warm lights.
A white door.
Maybe it was real.
Maybe my mind was manufacturing it.
I didn't know anymore.
Thomas did.
"My brother rented that house," he told me the next morning.
"Daniel?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because underneath it was one of Voss's original archive rooms."
Room 314.
Daniel and my mother had stolen records from the research network and hidden them there.
Then Daniel disappeared.
My mother fled with me.
Years later, ownership changed several times.
The archive was forgotten.
Until Claire and I bought the house.
"Coincidence?" I asked.
Thomas hesitated.
"Probably not."
I looked at Claire.
She was sitting across from us.
"Did you know before we bought it?"
"No."
I studied her face.
For once, I believed her.
"But someone knew," Thomas said.
Adrian Voss.
He had manipulated the listing.
Lowered the price through an intermediary.
Made sure we saw it.
Why?
Because he needed a Mercer to return.
Some of the old storage mechanisms used biometric verification tied to my mother's research credentials and genetic profile.
My presence could help access what Daniel had hidden.
"We were bait," I said.
Thomas nodded.
My wife began crying.
"Our whole family."
"Yes."
I wanted to hate Claire.
Part of me did.
Her secrecy had endangered us.
But she had also been manipulated.
Fear had made every mistake worse.
Still, one question remained.
"Why didn't you tell me when Emma entered the house?"
Claire looked at me.
"Because Emma wasn't the first child Thomas showed me."
Silence.
"What?"
Thomas lowered his head.
Claire continued.
"There were photographs of three other children."
"Where are they?"
"We don't know."
My stomach dropped.
"Alive?"
"We don't know."
That changed everything.
Emma wasn't simply the victim of an isolated crime.
She was the only child they had found.
The records from Room 314 gave police names.
Investigators began raiding properties linked to Voss's network.
Most were empty.
One contained medical equipment.
Another contained children's clothing.
No children.
Adrian had disappeared.
Then Emma remembered something.
We were sitting beside her hospital bed when she began drawing.
A house.
Trees.
A red barn.
Three stick figures.
"Who's that?" I asked.
Emma pointed.
"Maya."
Another.
"Ben."
Another.
"Sam."
My throat tightened.
"Friends?"
She nodded.
"From the white house."
Claire covered her mouth.
"Are they still there?"
Emma shook her head.
"They moved them."
"Where?"
She drew water.
A large blue shape.
Then a building.
Thomas leaned closer.
"Do you remember the name?"
Emma thought.
"The place had a bird."
"A bird?"
"On the sign."
She drew something resembling wings.
Detective Cole photographed the picture.
Within hours investigators identified a former pediatric research center near a reservoir.
Its logo was a silver bird.
The facility had officially closed two years earlier.
Police went there that night.
Adrian Voss was not present.
But the children were.
Three of them.
Alive.
When Cole called me, I sat down on the hospital floor.
Emma watched my face.
"They found your friends."
She didn't understand at first.
Then she did.
"Maya?"
"Yes."
"Ben?"
"Yes."
"And Sam?"
"All of them."
Emma burst into tears.
So did I.
It should have felt like the end.
Instead, it was the beginning of the most dangerous night of our lives.
At 11:42 p.m., the hospital fire alarm activated.
Nurses moved patients toward designated areas.
Security officers rushed down the corridor.
I immediately went to Emma.
Claire was already there.
Then the lights went out.
Emergency lighting flickered on.
Someone screamed.
I heard footsteps.
Not running away.
Coming toward us.
Thomas appeared at the far end of the corridor.
"Ryan!"
Behind him was a man.
Tall.
Gray hair.
Scar beneath his ear.
Adrian Voss.
He held something against Thomas's back.
A gun.
"Inside," Adrian said.
Thomas walked into Emma's room.
Adrian followed.
Claire went white.
I moved between him and the girls.
"You're done."
Adrian smiled.
"You sound like Daniel."
The name hit me.
"You knew my father."
"Very well."
"What happened to him?"
Adrian's smile disappeared.
"My father happened to him."
Thomas closed his eyes.
I understood.
Daniel hadn't abandoned us.
He had been killed.
Adrian looked toward Emma.
"Come here."
"No."
"She belongs to the program."
I felt rage so intense that my vision narrowed.
"She's a child."
"She's evidence."
"She's my daughter."
Emma grabbed my shirt.
Adrian raised the gun.
"Exactly."
Then Claire stepped forward.
"You need the archive."
Adrian looked at her.
Claire continued.
"That's why you haven't killed Ryan."
"Claire," I whispered.
She ignored me.
"You still can't open everything in Room 314."
Adrian's expression changed.
She was right.
"Take me," Claire said.
"No," I said.
She looked at me.
There was something in her expression I understood immediately.
Trust me.
After months of lies, she was finally asking me to trust her.
Adrian approached.
Claire waited.
One step.
Two.
Then she threw a metal water pitcher directly into his face.
Thomas grabbed his gun arm.
I lunged.
The weapon discharged into the ceiling.
Emma screamed.
Security officers rushed through the door seconds later.
Adrian hit the floor.
Handcuffs snapped around his wrists.
As officers dragged him away, he looked at me.
"You think this ends with me?"
I stared back.
"No."
I looked at Emma.
"It ends with her being free."
But Adrian smiled.
May you like
"Then you haven't opened the last file."
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