Chapter 3 - The Father at the Gate)
Caesar did not remember crossing the safe room.
One moment he was staring at the screen.
The next his hand was on the release panel.
Marcus grabbed his arm.
“No.”
Caesar turned violently.
“That is my father.”
“That looks like your father.”
“He is dead.”
“Exactly.”
Caesar shoved Marcus away.
“Open the gate.”
“No.”
Caesar’s voice dropped.
“That was not a request.”
Marcus did not move.
For fifteen years, Marcus had obeyed Caesar without hesitation.
Now he stood between him and the door.
“Someone threatened your children ten minutes ago. Then a man who looks exactly like your dead father appears at the gate. You do not walk toward that.”
Caesar stared at him.
Marcus continued.
“You investigate it.”
Clara agreed.
“He wants you outside.”
Vanessa laughed suddenly.
Everyone looked at her.
She had stopped panicking.
She appeared almost relieved.
“You people are unbelievable.”
Caesar watched her carefully.
“You are not surprised.”
“Of course I am surprised.”
“No.”
He stepped closer.
“You were terrified when Evelyn produced the card. You panicked when Amelia named you. But when my dead father appeared, you relaxed.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“You are imagining things.”
Caesar took her wrist.
“What do you know?”
“Nothing.”
“Vanessa.”
She pulled free.
“I said nothing.”
Samuel suddenly coughed.
Clara looked down.
The baby’s face had become pale.
His eyes fluttered.
“Caesar.”
Clara placed two fingers against the baby’s neck.
“We need medical help now.”
Caesar turned to Daniel.
“Call Dr. Whitmore.”
Daniel tried.
“No signal.”
The mansion communications had been disabled.
Marcus opened an emergency cabinet.
“There is an internal landline running on a separate circuit.”
It was dead.
Clara placed Samuel on the sofa.
“He is getting weaker.”
Vanessa rushed forward.
“My baby.”
Clara blocked her.
“What was in the cup?”
“Formula.”
“Do not lie to me.”
“Move.”
“What did you give him?”
Vanessa slapped Clara’s hand away.
“I am his mother.”
“And I am trying to keep him alive.”
The words silenced Vanessa.
Clara looked at Caesar.
“He needs a hospital.”
Marcus checked an external camera.
“The west vehicle bay is clear.”
Caesar pointed at Daniel.
“Take Samuel and Clara through the west tunnel.”
Vanessa immediately said, “I am going.”
“No.”
Her eyes widened.
“He is my son.”
Caesar stepped close enough that only she could hear his first sentence.
“If you poisoned him, you are not going within ten feet of him.”
Her face broke.
“You think I would hurt my own child?”
“I do not know what you would do anymore.”
Evelyn grabbed Caesar’s hand.
“Daddy.”
He looked down.
“What?”
“The man outside is not Grandpa.”
Caesar frowned.
“You remember Grandpa?”
“No.”
“Then how do you know?”
Evelyn pointed toward the screen.
“Because Mommy showed me his picture.”
Caesar followed her finger.
“She said if I ever saw that man, I had to hide.”
A cold weight settled inside Caesar.
“When did she tell you that?”
“Before she went away.”
Evelyn would have been two.
Too young to remember ordinary conversations clearly.
But trauma did not obey ordinary memory.
Caesar crouched.
“What else did she say?”
Evelyn looked at Clara.
Clara nodded.
“She said Grandpa had two faces.”
Caesar frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“I do not know.”
Evelyn whispered, “One was real.”
On the monitor, Vittorio Moretti turned and walked back toward the black sedan.
Before entering, he held something toward the camera.
A photograph.
Marcus zoomed in.
The picture showed Caesar as a baby in Vittorio’s arms.
Beside them stood Caesar’s mother, Isabella.
On the back, someone had written a date.
April 11, 1987.
Caesar’s birthday.
Then the man flipped the photograph.
A second message appeared.
ASK YOUR MOTHER WHO YOU ARE.
Caesar’s face drained.
His mother had been in a private neurological clinic in Switzerland for eleven years.
She had not spoken a coherent sentence in almost a decade.
Marcus looked at him.
“Still want to open that gate?”
Caesar stared at the departing sedan.
“No.”
Then he looked at the memory card.
“I want every secret my family buried.”
The lights went out.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Evelyn screamed.
A mechanical lock clicked.
The safe room door opened by itself.
And from the black hallway outside came a woman’s voice.
“Caesar?”
May you like
His entire body froze.
Because the voice belonged to Amelia.
