Chapter 7 - The House Without Mirrors)
Police found Emily alive.
That should have ended Laura’s nightmare.
Instead, it made everything worse.
The abandoned Winnetka property appeared empty.
Officers entered through the rear.
They found Emily sitting alone at a kitchen table.
No restraints.
No injuries.
A glass of orange juice sat in front of her.
Laura ran to her.
Emily burst into tears.
“I’m sorry.”
Laura hugged her.
“You did nothing wrong.”
“She said Dad would die if I screamed.”
“Who?”
“The woman.”
Emily described her.
Silver-blonde hair.
Approximately sixty.
Thin.
A scar beneath her chin.
Margaret heard the description and sat down.
“It’s her.”
“Your sister?” Brooks asked.
Margaret nodded.
Emily reached into her sweater pocket.
“She told me to give this to Dad.”
It was another photograph.
Daniel took it.
Thomas Hayes stood beside a teenage girl.
On the back was handwriting.
SHE REMEMBERS WHAT MARGARET DID.
Daniel looked at his mother.
“What did you do?”
Margaret whispered, “Nothing.”
Claire exploded.
“Stop fucking lying!”
Police searched the property.
In the basement they discovered a hidden room.
No windows.
No mirrors.
Only shelves.
Hundreds of folders.
Each labeled with a family member's name.
Thomas.
Margaret.
Claire.
Daniel.
Laura.
Emily.
And dozens of names none of them recognized.
Laura opened hers.
Detective Brooks stopped her.
“Don’t touch anything.”
But she had already seen the first page.
Her photograph.
Taken when she was nineteen.
Seven years before meeting Daniel.
Laura stared.
“That’s impossible.”
Daniel saw it.
“What is that?”
“I was at Northwestern.”
Another photograph showed Laura leaving a restaurant.
Another showed her parents.
Another showed her college boyfriend.
Someone had been watching Laura long before she entered the Hayes family.
Detective Brooks sealed the room.
Emily tugged Laura’s sleeve.
“Mom.”
“What?”
“The woman told me something.”
Laura crouched.
“What?”
“She said Grandma didn’t choose you.”
Laura frowned.
“Choose me for what?”
Emily looked toward Daniel.
“She said Grandpa did.”
Daniel overheard.
His expression hardened.
Margaret whispered, “Thomas, you bastard.”
Laura stood.
“What does that mean?”
Margaret shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Laura walked toward her.
“You knew my name before Daniel met me, didn’t you?”
Margaret did not answer.
“You knew.”
Margaret finally whispered, “Yes.”
Daniel stared at his mother.
“How?”
“Thomas sent me a file.”
“When?”
“Two years before you met Laura.”
Laura felt nauseated.
“What was in it?”
Margaret looked at her.
“Everything.”
“Why me?”
“I never knew.”
Detective Brooks approached.
“We found something else.”
He led them into the basement.
Behind the shelves was a steel door.
Police had forced it open.
Beyond it was a tunnel.
Fresh footprints crossed the dust.
The woman who had taken Emily had never left through the front door.
She had escaped underground.
But she had left something behind.
A phone.
There was one saved video.
May you like
Thomas Hayes appeared on screen.
And he had recorded it only eight days earlier.
