CHAPTER 2 — THE ROOM BENEATH THE HOUSE
Emily woke beneath a bright white light.
Her wrists were secured to the arms of a medical chair.
A leather strap crossed her waist.
For several seconds, she could not remember where she was.
Then she felt the pain in her ribs.
The bruises around her throat.
The bitter taste of blood.
Charles stood beside a stainless-steel table.
Vivian watched from the doorway.
A thin man in a gray suit prepared a syringe.
Emily recognized him.
Dr. Malcolm Vale.
He had been the Whitmore family physician for twenty-three years.
He had also signed the report claiming Vivian’s first husband died from natural causes.
“Where is my father?” Emily whispered.
Charles poured himself another drink.
“In custody.”
“You’re lying.”
“He attacked police officers in front of sixty witnesses.”
“He was protecting me.”
Vivian stepped forward.
“From what?”
Emily stared at her.
Vivian’s face was perfectly composed.
Not one strand of silver hair had moved out of place.
“Your son nearly killed me.”
“My son disciplined a hysterical woman who humiliated him in his own home.”
Emily pulled against the restraints.
Pain tore through her side.
She gasped.
Dr. Vale approached with the syringe.
“What is that?”
“A mild sedative.”
“No.”
“It will help you rest.”
“I said no.”
Charles placed his hand over hers.
His voice softened.
That frightened her more than his shouting ever had.
“You are going to sleep, Emily. When you wake up, you will sign a statement explaining that you attacked me.”
“I’ll never sign it.”
“You will.”
He looked toward Dr. Vale.
“Begin with the first dose.”
Emily twisted her arm away.
The needle scratched across her skin.
“No!”
Charles grabbed her jaw.
“You think your father is coming back?”
“He will.”
“Your father is an old mechanic pretending he is still important.”
Emily stared into his eyes.
“The helicopters frightened you.”
For the first time, Charles’s expression changed.
His fingers tightened against her face.
“Those helicopters were redirected.”
“By whom?”
He released her.
“That is not your concern.”
Dr. Vale injected the sedative into Emily’s arm.
Cold spread through her veins.
Her vision blurred.
Vivian placed a document on the table.
A psychiatric commitment order.
Emily’s name appeared at the top.
Below it were signatures from Dr. Vale, Chief Reed, and Judge Harrison Pike—the same judge who had been drinking beside the swimming pool.
“This says I tried to hurt myself,” Emily whispered.
Vivian leaned closer.
“Tomorrow, it will say you tried to hurt Charles.”
“I didn’t.”
“Truth is simply the version powerful people agree to repeat.”
Emily’s eyelids grew heavy.
Charles removed his bloodstained cuff links and placed them in a metal tray.
“Burn the dress,” he told Vivian. “Replace the rug. Delete the house footage.”
“What about the guests?”
“They saw what they were told to see.”
Emily fought to remain awake.
The room seemed to tilt around her.
Then she noticed something beneath the edge of her bandage.
A small black square.
The memory card from her phone.
Before Chief Reed pulled her from the truck, Emily had seen Charles staring at the glowing recording screen. She had known he would take the phone.
While everyone watched her father being beaten, she had removed the card and hidden it beneath the dressing on her wrist.
Charles had destroyed the device.
Not the evidence.
Emily forced her hand to remain still.
The room faded.
When she opened her eyes again, she was lying on a narrow bed inside a stone chamber.
No windows.
No clocks.
Only a steel door and a camera in the upper corner.
Her wrists were free, but her ankle was chained to the wall.
This was not a bedroom.
It was not a hospital room.
It was a cell.
Emily pushed herself upright.
The movement sent pain through her ribs.
Beside the bed sat a glass of water and a fresh white dress.
Her bloodstained clothing was gone.
So was the bandage containing the memory card.
Panic shot through her.
She searched the mattress.
The floor.
The chain around her ankle.
Nothing.
Then she heard footsteps outside.
The steel door opened.
Vivian entered carrying a silver tray.
On it rested the memory card.
“You were always smarter than Charles realized,” Vivian said.
Emily’s heart sank.
Vivian picked up the card between two fingers.
“But not smarter than me.”
She held it above a candle flame.
The plastic curled.
Smoke rose.
Emily watched the evidence melt.
“You can destroy a card,” Emily said. “You can’t destroy what it uploaded.”
Vivian’s hand stopped.
For the first time, real uncertainty entered her eyes.
Emily saw it.
And smiled.
Vivian slapped her hard enough to knock her back onto the bed.
“You know nothing about your father’s old life.”
“I know enough.”
“No, darling.”
Vivian crouched beside her.
“You don’t even know the truth about your mother.”
Emily stopped breathing.
Vivian reached into her jacket and removed an old photograph.
It showed Daniel standing beside Emily’s mother, Rebecca.
They were much younger.
Behind them stood three other people.
Colonel Evelyn Shaw.
A man Emily did not recognize.
And Vivian Whitmore.
“My mother knew you?”
Vivian turned the photograph over.
A handwritten date was printed on the back.
July 4, twenty-four years earlier.
The year Emily was born.
Before Emily could ask another question, Vivian walked out.
The door closed.
The lock turned.
Emily stared at the photograph left on the floor.
Someone had written five words beneath the date.
THE CHILD MUST NEVER KNOW.
Daniel regained consciousness in a room without windows.
His wrists were cuffed to a metal table.
Blood had dried along his temple.
Chief Reed stood against the far wall.
Across from Daniel sat Colonel Evelyn Shaw.
She looked almost exactly as she had sixteen years ago.
Same gray eyes.
Same rigid posture.
Only the silver in her hair had changed.
“You’re dead,” Daniel said.
“That was the intention.”
“Where is Emily?”
“Still at the Whitmore estate.”
Daniel pulled against the cuffs.
“Then uncuff me.”
“I can’t.”
“You mean you won’t.”
Evelyn opened a black folder.
Inside was a photograph of Rebecca Cross.
Daniel’s late wife.
She was standing outside the Whitmore mansion.
The photograph had been taken three days before the car crash that killed her.
Daniel stared at it.
Evelyn slid another page across the table.
A mission authorization form.
The signature at the bottom belonged to Rebecca.
May you like
It granted emergency command privileges to one individual in the event Daniel Cross reactivated the Code Black protocol.
That individual was Charles Whitmore.
