Chapter 9 - The Name Behind the Mask“Emma!”
I ran into the rain barefoot.
Cold water soaked through my dress almost instantly, but I barely felt it.
The driveway was empty.
The gate stood open.
No car.
No footsteps.
No movement.
Just rain.
“Emma!”
My voice cracked.
Behind me, Detective Miller shouted, “Claire, stop!”
I didn't.
I reached the edge of the driveway and turned toward the road.
Nothing.
Then I saw them.
Tiny footprints in the mud.
A child's shoes.
Leading toward the side gate.
I followed them.
“Claire!”
Miller caught up with me.
“Don't go alone.”
“My daughter is out there.”
“I know.”
He crouched beside the prints.
“These are fresh.”
Evelyn came running from the house, followed by Robert and Marissa.
Linda remained frozen in the doorway.
Daniel was still handcuffed beside the dining room table.
I turned toward him.
“Where would they take her?”
He looked at the footprints.
His face changed.
“Not the road.”
“What?”
“The old greenhouse.”
I stared at him.
“Where?”
“At the Harrington estate.”
“This isn't the Harrington estate?”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“There’s a second property.”
Miller grabbed his jacket.
“Location.”
Daniel gave him the address.
Evelyn suddenly spoke.
“That's where Helena would go.”
I turned toward her.
“Why?”
“Because your father used it.”
“What was there?”
“A private office.”
Robert's expression changed.
“No.”
I looked at him.
“You know the place.”
“Yes.”
“Then you're coming.”
He shook his head.
“Claire, don't.”
“You've lied to me for two decades.”
I stepped closer.
“You can at least tell me where my daughter is.”
He looked toward Daniel.
Then away.
“The greenhouse was never a greenhouse.”
“What was it?”
“A storage facility.”
“For what?”
“Records.”
My stomach tightened.
“The ledger.”
“Yes.”
Miller looked at Daniel.
“Is that where the original records are?”
“I don't know.”
“You're going to find out.”
Miller unlocked Daniel's handcuffs from the front and secured a second restraint.
“Let's move.”
Linda stepped forward.
“I’m coming too.”
I stared at her.
“No.”
“She took my granddaughter.”
“You helped create this.”
Linda flinched.
“I know.”
“Then stay here.”
She shook her head.
“I can't.”
I turned away.
“That's not my problem.”
Her voice broke.
“Claire.”
I stopped.
“I know where the office is.”
I looked back.
She swallowed.
“And I know what’s inside.”
My anger hesitated.
Miller looked at her.
“What?”
Linda's eyes filled with tears.
“The truth.”
Twenty minutes later, we were driving through sheets of rain.
I sat in the back beside Emma's empty car seat.
Daniel was in the front with Miller.
Robert and Evelyn followed in another vehicle.
I kept staring at the little stuffed rabbit I had found on the threshold.
Its fur was wet.
There was mud on one ear.
I pressed it against my chest.
“Please be okay.”
Miller glanced at me through the rearview mirror.
“She will be.”
“You don't know that.”
“No.”
He paused.
“But we’re going to find her.”
Daniel suddenly spoke.
“She'll be in the underground room.”
I looked up.
“What?”
“The greenhouse has a basement.”
Miller tightened his grip on the steering wheel.
“Why didn't you mention that earlier?”
“Because I forgot.”
I laughed bitterly.
“Of course you did.”
Daniel didn't respond.
We turned down a narrow road lined with dead trees.
At the end stood a large stone house surrounded by overgrown gardens.
The greenhouse sat behind it.
Its glass panels were mostly dark.
One light burned inside.
I felt my heart hammer.
“She’s there.”
Miller parked before the gate.
“Everyone stays behind me.”
Daniel stared at the greenhouse.
“I need to tell you something.”
I looked at him.
“What now?”
“The woman who took Emma…”
“Yes?”
“She isn't Helena.”
My stomach dropped.
“What?”
Daniel looked terrified.
“She works for her.”
“Who?”
He shook his head.
“I don't know her real name.”
“Then how do you know she isn't Helena?”
“Because I've met Helena.”
Miller frowned.
“And?”
Daniel stared straight ahead.
“Helena has a scar across her left eyebrow.”
I remembered the woman who had entered the Harrington house.
No scar.
My pulse surged.
“Then who was she?”
Daniel whispered,
“Evelyn.”
I turned.
“What?”
He nodded toward the second vehicle arriving behind us.
“Not the Evelyn you think.”
I stepped out of the car.
Evelyn was walking toward us.
Miller raised his hand.
“Stop.”
She stopped.
“What happened?”
Daniel shouted from the car.
“It's not her!”
Evelyn looked confused.
“Daniel?”
He stared at her.
“You've been dead for twenty years.”
I froze.
Evelyn's face changed.
Not confusion.
Recognition.
Fear.
Then anger.
She ran.
Miller tackled her before she reached the trees.
I stood frozen.
“No…”
Daniel got out of the car.
“That woman isn't Evelyn.”
Miller pulled her arms behind her.
“Who are you?”
The woman stopped struggling.
She smiled.
A slow, calm smile.
Then she looked directly at me.
“I'm sorry, Claire.”
I stepped backward.
“You know me.”
“Yes.”
“Where's my daughter?”
She didn't answer.
Miller tightened the cuffs.
“Where is the child?”
The woman laughed softly.
“In the place where your husband was supposed to finish what he started.”
I felt sick.
“What does that mean?”
She looked at Daniel.
“He'll know.”
Daniel shook his head.
“No.”
Her smile widened.
“Tell her.”
He said nothing.
The woman looked back at me.
“Your husband wasn't supposed to survive the crash either.”
I turned toward Daniel.
“What?”
He stared at the ground.
Miller demanded, “Explain.”
Daniel finally spoke.
“Helena wanted all of us dead.”
Miller frowned.
“Why?”
“Because the ledger wasn't the only thing Claire's father left behind.”
I swallowed.
“What else?”
Daniel looked at me.
“A recording.”
I remembered the voice from the night of the accident.
The recording.
“You already heard it,” I said.
“No.”
He shook his head.
“That was only a fragment.”
“Where's the rest?”
Daniel looked toward the greenhouse.
“Inside.”
I moved toward the building.
Miller grabbed my shoulder.
“Wait.”
“My daughter is in there.”
“We don't know that.”
The woman on the ground laughed.
“She is.”
Miller looked at her.
“How do you know?”
“Because I put her there.”
My heart stopped.
I turned.
“Why?”
She shrugged.
“Because Helena needs Claire to come willingly.”
“Why me?”
“Because the ledger is useless without you.”
I stared at her.
“I don't have it.”
Her smile disappeared.
“Yes, you do.”
She nodded toward me.
“You've had it for two years.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
“Think carefully.”
My memory flashed.
The hospital.
The accident.
The days afterward.
I remembered opening the drawer beside my bed.
A brown envelope.
I remembered putting something inside my purse.
Then nothing.
My hand flew to my chest.
The prosthetic.
The socket.
A thought struck me so suddenly I nearly staggered.
During rehabilitation, I had noticed a tiny compartment beneath the cosmetic cover.
The technician told me it was part of the old fitting assembly.
I had never opened it.
I looked down at my left arm.
The carbon-fiber casing.
The metal joint.
The hidden space.
“Oh my God.”
Daniel whispered, “You have it.”
I looked at him.
“You knew?”
“I suspected.”
“You let me carry it for two years.”
“I didn't know where.”
The woman on the ground smiled.
“Now you do.”
Miller looked at my prosthetic.
“What is inside it?”
“I don't know.”
“Then we find out after we get your daughter.”
The greenhouse light suddenly went out.
Darkness swallowed the building.
Then a speaker crackled somewhere inside.
A child's voice came through.
“Mom?”
I couldn't breathe.
“Emma!”
Her voice came again.
“Mom, don't come in!”
Daniel's face turned white.
Miller raised his weapon.
“Everyone stay back.”
Emma screamed.
Then another voice spoke through the speaker.
A woman's voice.
Calm.
Familiar.
“Hello, Claire.”
My blood froze.
It was the voice from the phone.
The woman pretending to be Rachel.
But she didn't call herself Rachel now.
She said,
“My real name is Helena Crane.”
The greenhouse doors opened by themselves.
Inside was darkness.
Then one light came on.
A chair sat in the center of the room.
Emma was tied to it.
And behind her stood a woman with a scar across her left eyebrow.
Helena smiled.
“You finally came.”
Miller raised his weapon.
“Release the girl.”
Helena placed one hand on Emma's shoulder.
“Not until Claire brings me what belongs to my family.”
I stared at her.
“What do you want?”
Helena looked at my prosthetic.
“The ledger.”
“I don't have it.”
“Yes, you do.”
She smiled.
“And tomorrow morning, everyone will know exactly what your father did.”
I took one step forward.
Helena's eyes narrowed.
“Stop.”
I stopped.
“Come closer, Claire.”
I looked at Emma.
She was crying silently.
I looked at Daniel.
Then at the hidden compartment in my prosthetic.
And for the first time, I understood why someone had spent two years making sure I believed I had survived the worst night of my life by accident.
I hadn't survived by accident.
Someone had needed me alive.
Because I was the only person carrying the final piece of my father's secret.
Helena's smile disappeared.
“Open the prosthetic.”
I stared at her.
Then I heard a voice behind me.
A woman's voice.
A voice I had not heard since I was a child.
“Claire, don't.”
I turned.
Standing in the rain beyond the greenhouse was my mother.
May you like
Alive.
And she was holding a gun pointed directly at Helena.