Chapter 10 - The Photograph Taken Tonight
The photograph showed me sleeping.
In my hospital bed.
Taken from the doorway.
The timestamp was forty-three minutes earlier.
I couldn't breathe.
Someone had been inside my room.
Thomas stared at the photograph.
Dad looked sick.
Vanessa started crying.
I asked,
“Why me?”
Thomas turned toward me.
“Because you're the last living person who can connect Rachel to the evidence.”
“But I don't know anything.”
“You know more than you think.”
He opened Rachel's letter again.
The fake letter.
There was something beneath the ink.
A hidden message.
A forensic specialist had revealed it.
Three words.
Remember the lighthouse.
Thomas recognized the phrase.
Charleston.
I frowned.
“Why Charleston?”
Thomas looked at me.
“Rachel spent six months there.”
“When?”
“Before you were born.”
Dad looked shocked.
“I didn't know that.”
Thomas stared at him.
“You were never supposed to.”
The lighthouse became our next destination.
But before we could leave, the hospital doors locked.
Security guards rushed through the hall.
A voice came over the speaker.
“Emergency lockdown.”
Thomas grabbed my hand.
“What happened?”
The security chief ran toward us.
“We found the intruder.”
“Where?”
“On the third floor.”
Thomas looked at Dad.
“You stay here.”
Dad shook his head.
“I'm coming.”
“No.”
“You can't take my daughter.”
I stepped between them.
“She isn't taking me.”
Thomas looked at me.
“I need to know what you want.”
I swallowed.
“I want the truth.”
Thomas nodded.
“Then you're coming.”
We reached the third floor.
The intruder was gone.
But someone had left another message.
Written on a mirror.
Rachel is closer than you think.
I stared at the words.
Then I noticed something else.
A small symbol underneath.
A lighthouse.
Thomas touched it.
“This was Rachel's symbol.”
My heart raced.
“Then she's alive.”
Thomas didn't answer.
Instead, he looked at the security footage.
A woman had entered the hallway.
She wore a dark coat.
Her face was hidden.
But before leaving, she had turned toward the camera.
For one second, her face was visible.
I stepped closer.
I knew those eyes.
I had seen them in the photograph.
I whispered,
“Mom?”
Dad dropped into a chair.
Thomas stared at the screen.
May you like
Then he said,
“She's alive.”
