Chapter 10 - THE BALLROOM BELOW
The ballroom floor opened beneath the central chandelier.
A circular section of marble descended like an elevator, revealing a staircase illuminated by blue emergency lights.
Police ordered everyone back.
Ethan began to panic.
“He knows we found the door.”
William knelt beside him.
“Who knows?”
“The old doctor.”
Emma recognized the melody echoing from below.
Her mother had used the same lullaby to calm her during storms.
Detective Quinn led the descent with two armed officers. William followed despite her objections. Emma remained beside Ethan, but the boy refused to stay behind.
“If I don’t show you,” he said, “you won’t find her.”
The staircase led to a laboratory far larger than the recovery suite.
Modern computers stood beside medical equipment dating back decades. Cabinets contained hundreds of patient files. A wall of monitors displayed rooms throughout Sterling Manor.
Someone had watched every hallway, bedroom, and servant area.
A live image showed Isabella sitting alone inside a police interview room.
Another showed Dr. Vale in a holding cell.
“He has access to police cameras,” Quinn said.
A figure appeared on the largest screen.
Mr. Langley stood in an unknown room beside Eleanor Sterling.
Eleanor was alive.
Her hair had turned almost entirely white, and she leaned against the wall for support, but her eyes were alert.
“William,” she said into the camera.
He stepped toward the screen.
“Eleanor.”
“You must leave the house.”
“Where are you?”
“Do not search for me.”
“Langley is holding you.”
Eleanor looked at the man beside her.
“No. He helped me escape.”
Emma stared at Langley.
“The note warned William not to trust him.”
“I wrote no note,” Eleanor said.
A cold silence filled the laboratory.
William took the evidence bag from Quinn and held Eleanor’s message toward the camera.
She shook her head.
“That is my handwriting, but those are not my words.”
“Who wrote it?”
A new voice answered from behind them.
“I did.”
An elderly man sat in a motorized chair at the far end of the laboratory.
He had been hidden in darkness.
Ethan screamed.
William moved in front of him.
The old man rolled into the blue light.
Emma recognized him from the Project Mnemosyne photograph.
Dr. Julian Cross.
According to foundation records, he had died eighteen years earlier.
His body looked frail, but his eyes were bright and merciless.
“Isabella’s father,” Quinn said.
Cross smiled.
“Isabella was useful. Her ambition made her predictable.”
William’s hands clenched.
“You imprisoned my wife.”
“Henry imprisoned her. I preserved her.”
“You tortured my son.”
“Ethan was never your son.”
“He is my son in every way that matters.”
Cross studied him with faint amusement.
“Exactly the response Eleanor predicted.”
Emma looked at the monitors.
“Why bring me here?”
“To open what Rose concealed.”
“I don’t know where the register is.”
“You carry it.”
Emma stared at him.
Cross touched a control.
The screen displayed an X-ray taken when Emma was a child.
A small object appeared beneath the scar near her left shoulder.
“Your mother placed a storage capsule under your skin,” Cross said. “She understood no one would search a frightened eight-year-old.”
Emma touched the old scar.
“She hid the patient register inside me?”
“A digital copy.”
Quinn raised her weapon.
“You’re coming with us.”
Cross pressed another control.
Steel shutters sealed every exit.
Gas began hissing through vents.
Ethan covered his mouth.
William rushed toward the control panel.
Cross laughed.
“The final phase of Project Mnemosyne was never about erasing memory.”
Emma’s vision blurred.
“What was it about?”
“Creating one.”
The laboratory lights changed from blue to white.
Images flashed across the monitors.
Emma saw memories that were not hers.
A hospital room.
Eleanor holding a baby.
Rose crying.
William standing outside a door.
A man placing a newborn child into Rose’s arms.
May you like
Then Cross’s voice entered her mind.
“Tell me, Emma. Are you certain Rose Hale ever existed?”
