Chapter 15 - the man outside the window
The photograph was delivered to Claire shortly before midnight.
It showed Ethan sitting beside Noah’s bassinet while Claire stood near the fireplace.
The image had been taken less than two hours earlier.
Someone had been watching the house.
Security searched the property and found a damaged section of fence near the woods. A set of footprints led toward the road before disappearing.
Ethan wanted Claire and Noah moved immediately.
This time, Claire agreed.
They were taken to a federal protection residence whose address was known to only four people.
Audrey joined them after identifying several members of Malcolm’s network.
Alexander’s baby was placed under medical supervision at a separate protected location.
The child was healthy, but the agents found a small tracking device sewn inside his blanket.
Malcolm had intended to follow anyone who rescued him.
The device transmitted a final signal before investigators disabled it.
The signal traveled not toward Blackwood Island but toward the city.
Toward Claire.
At the protection residence, Noah slept while Ethan reviewed photographs recovered from the island.
Claire stood beside him.
Most showed Ethan throughout his childhood.
Others showed Claire’s mother.
One photograph had been taken outside Claire’s school when she was eleven.
Malcolm had watched her long before she met Ethan.
Ethan turned it facedown.
“I’m sorry.”
“You didn’t take the photograph.”
“My family did.”
“You are not your family.”
Ethan looked at her.
Months earlier, Claire would not have been able to say those words.
She was still not ready to call their relationship repaired.
But she no longer saw him as one of the people hunting Noah.
He had finally chosen a side.
A federal agent entered the room carrying an evidence bag.
“We recovered this from the island’s communications center.”
Inside was a gold signet ring.
Malcolm’s ring.
Ethan examined it.
“He wore this every day.”
“There was blood on the inside,” the agent said. “The laboratory is testing it.”
“Do you believe he is injured?”
“We don’t know.”
Audrey entered from the hallway.
When she saw the ring, she shook her head.
“That isn’t Malcolm’s.”
Ethan looked at her.
“It has the family crest.”
“Malcolm’s ring had an inscription on the inner band.”
The agent turned it beneath the light.
There was no inscription.
“Whose ring is this?” Claire asked.
Audrey’s expression became uneasy.
“Alexander’s.”
Ethan stood.
“My brother was involved?”
“I don’t know.”
“You said Malcolm controlled him.”
“He did.”
“Then why did Alexander have a copy of the family ring?”
“Because Malcolm promised that one day Alexander would replace you.”
Claire looked at Noah.
“Is Alexander trying to take his son back?”
“Perhaps.”
“Would he hurt Noah?”
Audrey did not answer quickly enough.
Ethan moved toward her.
“What aren’t you telling us?”
Audrey looked at the sleeping baby.
“Alexander spent his entire life being told that Ethan stole his name, his family and his inheritance.”
“I was a child.”
“Malcolm taught him that you were the reason he remained hidden.”
“I didn’t know he existed.”
“He knows that now. I told him.”
“Then where is he?”
“He disappeared before the agents reached the island.”
The federal agent received a call and stepped outside.
Claire walked to the window.
Beyond the reinforced glass, rain had begun falling across the dark grounds.
A black vehicle approached the security gate.
It stopped before the barrier.
The driver did not identify himself.
Ethan joined Claire at the window.
“Were we expecting anyone?”
“No.”
The gate officer ordered the vehicle to leave.
Instead, the rear door opened.
A tall man stepped onto the road.
Even from a distance, Claire saw the resemblance.
The same height as Ethan.
The same dark hair.
The same stillness before anger.
Audrey moved behind them.
Her face lost all color.
“Alexander.”
Ethan turned.
“That is my brother?”
Audrey nodded.
Alexander approached the gate alone.
He carried no visible weapon.
In one hand, he held a sealed envelope.
In the other, he held a photograph.
A security camera enlarged the image on the monitoring screen.
The photograph showed Claire leaving Room 417 six months earlier.
Behind her stood Dr. Holloway and Lena.
In the far corner was another figure Claire had never noticed.
Ethan.
Claire stared at the screen.
“That’s impossible. Ethan was in Chicago.”
Ethan looked equally stunned.
“I was.”
Alexander raised his face toward the security camera.
Then he spoke into the gate intercom.
“My name is Alexander Reed.”
His voice sounded disturbingly similar to Ethan’s.
“I am not here for Noah.”
Claire lifted the intercom receiver.
“Then why are you here?”
Alexander held the sealed envelope toward the camera.
“I’m here because Malcolm has been lying to all of us.”
“What is inside the envelope?”
“The original recording from Room 417.”
“We already recovered the corridor footage.”
“Not the recording from inside the room.”
Claire’s hand tightened around the receiver.
“There was no camera inside.”
Alexander looked directly toward the house.
“Yes, there was.”
Ethan stepped closer to the intercom.
“What did it record?”
Alexander’s expression hardened.
“It recorded the person who gave Bianca the order to lock Claire inside.”
“Was it Malcolm?”
“No.”
“Celeste?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Alexander looked at the photograph in his hand.
“The person who ordered Bianca to leave Claire in Room 417 was standing beside Claire at the wedding.”
Claire remembered the ballroom.
Ethan.
Dr. Holloway.
Lena.
Celeste.
The officers.
The guests.
“Give us the recording,” Ethan said.
Alexander shook his head.
“Not until you bring Noah to the gate.”
“That will never happen.”
“Then you will never know which person inside that house has been working for Malcolm from the beginning.”
Audrey stepped toward the intercom.
“Alexander, your son is safe.”
His expression changed.
“Where is he?”
“Under federal protection.”
“I want to see him.”
“Then surrender.”
Alexander looked toward the road behind him.
“I cannot.”
“Why?”
Headlights appeared through the rain.
More vehicles were approaching.
Alexander placed the envelope beneath the security camera and stepped back.
“Because Malcolm followed me.”
The first vehicle stopped behind him.
Then another.
And another.
Ethan activated the house alarm.
Federal agents rushed toward defensive positions.
Claire lifted Noah from the bassinet.
Alexander remained outside the gate as a figure stepped from the nearest car.
An older man in a dark coat.
Even after three years, Ethan recognized his father immediately.
Malcolm Vale looked toward the house.
Then he raised a phone.
Claire’s new private number began to ring.
No caller name appeared.
She answered without speaking.
Malcolm’s voice came through clearly.
“Claire, do not trust the recording Alexander brought you.”
“Why?”
“Because it was created to protect the person who truly caused your emergency.”
“Who was it?”
Malcolm laughed softly.
“You still believe Bianca brought you to Room 417 because of Noah.”
“She did.”
“No. Noah was only the reason she was given.”
Claire looked at Ethan.
“What was the real reason?”
“To prevent you from remembering what happened in that same room when you were five years old.”
Claire stopped breathing.
“I had never been in that hospital before.”
“Yes, you had.”
“No.”
“Ask Dr. Holloway why she recognized you before she opened the door.”
Claire slowly turned.
Dr. Holloway stood at the end of the hallway.
She was holding Noah’s most recent medical file.
Her expression was no longer surprised.
Malcolm continued speaking through the phone.
“Ask her why your mother’s name was removed from the hospital death register.”
Claire stared at the doctor.
“My mother died when I was fourteen.”
Dr. Holloway’s hand tightened around the file.
Malcolm’s final words came in a whisper.
“No, Claire. The woman who raised you died when you were fourteen.”
The line disconnected.
Outside, Alexander reached toward the sealed envelope.
A shot struck the security camera above him.
The screen went black.
Inside the house, every light went out.
Noah began to cry.
Claire heard a door unlock somewhere behind her.
May you like
Then Dr. Holloway’s voice came through the darkness.
“Claire, give me the baby.”
