Chapter 5 - The Picture Oliver Wasn't Supposed to Draw
Emily remembered the drawing.
She had forgotten almost everything about that afternoon, but she remembered the drawing.
Oliver had been three.
Nathan's father Richard had been dead for almost two years.
Helen had invited them to her house for lunch.
Oliver spent most of the afternoon playing beneath Richard's old desk because he liked pretending it was a cave.
That evening, he drew a picture.
Most drawings at that age were circles, crooked people, impossible houses, and suns with enormous rays.
This one was different.
A black box.
Three stick figures.
A red door.
And blue half-moons.
Emily had put it on the refrigerator.
The next morning it was gone.
Nathan said Oliver must have thrown it away.
Now, standing beneath fluorescent hospital lights, Emily remembered the blue half-moons.
Exactly like the symbol Oliver described on Helen's bottle.
"Nathan."
He looked away.
"Was the symbol in Richard's files?"
Nathan said nothing.
"Nathan."
"Yes."
"What is it?"
"I don't know exactly."
"You told me to disappear with our child, and now you're telling me you don't know?"
"I know what it means."
"Then tell me."
He glanced toward Officer Reyes.
"No."
Emily almost struck him.
Nathan saw it coming.
"Not because I don't trust you."
"You should be more worried about whether I trust you."
"Emily, listen to me."
"No. You listen. Oliver nearly died because of something your mother is hiding. You will tell me everything you know."
Nathan's jaw tightened.
Then he looked through the glass at his son.
His resistance broke.
"My father kept records."
"What kind?"
"Financial transfers. Property purchases. Private medical accounts."
"Medical?"
"Yes."
"Whose?"
"I don't know all of them."
"Nathan."
"Children's."
Emily's stomach dropped.
"What children?"
"That's the problem."
He rubbed his face.
"They don't match names."
"What does that mean?"
"Different names attached to the same identification numbers. Birth dates altered. Insurance records moved between families."
Emily stared at him.
"Are you telling me your father was involved in identity theft?"
"I don't know what he was involved in."
"What does your mother have to do with it?"
"She found the files after he died."
"And Meridian Shield?"
"I created the company to track where the records went."
Emily laughed in disbelief.
"Your mother owns it."
"Because she funded it."
"So you were working together."
"At first."
"Doing what?"
"Trying to find whoever my father had been working for."
Emily's anger returned.
"You withdrew forty thousand dollars from our savings."
"Because someone offered to sell me one of the missing archives."
"You stole from us."
"Yes."
He said it without defending himself.
That surprised her.
"I thought if I could get the archive, I'd finally understand."
"Did you?"
Nathan shook his head.
"The seller disappeared."
"Who?"
"A former employee from St. Catherine Children's Hospital."
Emily knew the hospital.
Everyone in Briarwood did.
It had closed ten years earlier after a financial scandal.
"What was his name?"
"Elliot Vane."
"And where is he?"
"No idea."
"What does this have to do with Oliver?"
Nathan looked toward his son.
"Three years ago, he was under Dad's desk."
"He was playing."
"There was a false panel beneath the bottom drawer."
Emily's breath caught.
"Oliver opened it?"
"He must have."
"What was inside?"
"A flash drive."
"And the drawing?"
"He drew what was on it."
"The blue moon?"
Nathan nodded.
"And the red door?"
Nathan's expression darkened.
"That's what I never understood."
Emily felt cold again.
"Did Helen take the drawing?"
"Yes."
"You told me Oliver threw it away."
"I was trying to protect you."
"You were protecting her."
Nathan said nothing.
Emily turned away.
She needed space.
But then Oliver called weakly from the room.
"Daddy?"
Nathan stepped toward the door.
Emily blocked him.
Oliver raised one hand.
"Daddy can come."
Emily looked at Nathan.
Then moved aside.
Nathan entered slowly.
Oliver watched him.
"I'm sorry I ruined dinner."
Nathan's face collapsed.
"No."
He sat beside the bed.
"No, buddy. You didn't ruin anything."
"Grandma said I did."
"Grandma was wrong."
Oliver looked down at his blanket.
"Are you mad because I took the key?"
Nathan froze.
Emily leaned closer.
"What key?"
Oliver looked confused.
"The one from Grandma's purse."
"When?"
"At the restaurant."
Emily stared at Nathan.
Oliver reached beneath the heated blanket.
From the pocket of his pajama pants, he pulled a small brass key.
A blue crescent moon had been engraved into its head.
Nathan stopped breathing.
"Oliver..."
May you like
The boy held it out.
"Grandma said nobody was ever supposed to find the red door again."
