Chapter 9 - The Memory Beneath the Lake
The first complete memory returned in a dream.
I was sixteen again, standing beside a frozen lake behind a research facility. Snow covered the trees. A young girl sat on the dock, her shoes inches above the black water.
Vanessa.
She was eight years old.
I knew her name even though, in my waking life, I believed we had met eleven years ago.
In the dream, she looked up at me.
“They said my father is dead.”
“I’m sorry.”
“They said you saw it happen.”
I shook my head.
“I don’t remember.”
She held out a small metal object.
A key marked 317.
“Your father told me to give this to you.”
“Which father?”
The dream ended.
I awoke in my childhood bedroom, drenched in sweat.
Vanessa was asleep in a chair by the window.
After Elena’s arrest, she had been allowed to return to the estate under police supervision. We were not reconciled. We barely knew what we were.
But we were bound by the same missing past.
I woke her.
“I knew you before the auction.”
Her face changed.
“You remember?”
“A lake. You gave me the bank key.”
“I’ve dreamed about that lake since I was a child.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I thought it was something Elena had planted in my mind.”
We went to my mother’s room.
She had returned home with a private nurse selected by Detective Bennett. The house was under constant police watch.
My mother listened as I described the dream.
“The lake was at Meridian House,” she said.
“The research facility?”
“Yes.”
“Where is it?”
“It burned down after the accident.”
“Was the white room inside?”
She nodded.
“Then we need to go there.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because someone has been waiting for you to remember.”
“Who?”
My mother looked at the closed door.
“Dr. Adrian Vale.”
The name struck something inside me.
A man in a white coat.
Long fingers.
A soft voice counting backward from ten.
“Who is he?”
“Project Sable’s director.”
“Is he alive?”
“He disappeared after the fire.”
Vanessa took out her phone.
She searched the name, but no clear record appeared.
My mother said, “Richard believed Vale died in the fire. I never believed it.”
“Why not?”
“Because I received a letter two years later.”
“What did it say?”
“Memory is only a locked room. Every room has a key.”
Vanessa and I exchanged a glance.
“Where is the letter?” I asked.
“I burned it.”
“Of course you did.”
My bitterness hurt her, but I could no longer soften the truth.
My mother had hidden too much.
Detective Bennett arrived that afternoon with information from Elena’s interrogation.
“Elena admits arranging your mother’s abduction,” she said. “She admits forcing the confession. She denies replacing the medication.”
“Do you believe her?” I asked.
“I believe she is telling the truth about that part.”
“Then who entered the house?”
“We identified the vehicle used by the disguised woman. It was registered to a medical charity called the Vale Foundation.”
The room went silent.
“Adrian Vale?” Vanessa asked.
“The foundation claims he died fifteen years ago. However, its current director is Dr. Evelyn Voss.”
My mother dropped her cup.
Tea spilled across the blanket.
“Mom?”
She stared at the detective.
“Say the name again.”
“Dr. Evelyn Voss.”
My mother’s lips trembled.
“That is not her real name.”
“Who is she?” I asked.
May you like
My mother looked at me with fear deeper than anything I had seen before.
“Your sister.”
