Chapter 5 - The Child Who Remembered
Claire rushed home.
Mia was asleep.
Claire stood in the doorway watching her.
For the first time, she noticed things she had ignored.
Mia remembered details from before Mike's death that a four-year-old shouldn't remember.
The blue truck.
The cabin.
A song Mike used to hum.
A hidden room beneath their old house.
Claire suddenly remembered something.
Mia had once told her there was a man who visited Daddy.
Claire had assumed it was one of Mike's colleagues.
Now she wondered.
She woke Mia gently.
“Sweetheart.”
Mia opened her eyes.
“Mommy?”
“Do you remember Daddy's friend Harold?”
Mia nodded.
“Do you remember seeing him before Daddy went away?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Mia pointed toward the hallway.
“In the secret room.”
Claire's blood ran cold.
Their old house.
The house they had sold after Mike's death.
Claire had never known about a secret room.
Mia continued.
“Daddy told me not to go there.”
“Did Harold go there?”
Mia nodded.
“And Nathan?”
Another nod.
Claire's heart raced.
“What did you see?”
Mia became quiet.
Then she said something that changed everything.
“Daddy was hurt.”
Claire closed her eyes.
She didn't ask for details.
She didn't need them.
“What happened next?”
“Daddy told me to hide.”
“Where?”
“Under the stairs.”
Claire remembered.
The house had a staircase with a hollow space beneath it.
She had never checked it.
The next morning, Claire went there.
The new owners had renovated the house, but the staircase remained.
She found a small metal door hidden beneath the wood paneling.
Inside was a narrow compartment.
Empty.
Except for one object.
A silver ring.
Claire recognized it immediately.
Harold's ring.
But carved inside it was a second symbol.
The same symbol from behind Harold's ear.
Claire took a photograph.
Then her phone vibrated.
A message appeared.
STOP LOOKING.
Claire stared at the screen.
May you like
A second message followed.
OR MIA WILL REMEMBER EVERYTHING.
