CHAPTER 2 — THE ROOM THAT NEVER EXISTED
CHAPTER 2 — THE ROOM THAT NEVER EXISTED
"Welcome back, Victor."
The voice came from behind him.
Victor stopped breathing.
For eighteen years, he had believed the man who owned that voice was dead.
He turned slowly.
Nothing.
Only darkness.
"Ethan!"
His son's scream came from somewhere beyond the steel door.
"Daddy!"
Victor slammed both hands against it.
"Ethan!"
"I'm here!"
The boy was crying.
"Don't let him take me!"
Victor's heart pounded.
"Who?"
Silence.
Then another voice.
A man's voice.
Calm.
Almost amused.
"You're asking the wrong question, Victor."
Victor froze.
"Show yourself."
"You still think this is about Ethan."
"Where is my son?"
"He's the reason you opened the door."
"Let him go."
"I can't."
"Why?"
"Because you already did."
Victor's blood ran cold.
"What does that mean?"
The voice laughed softly.
"You really don't remember?"
Victor looked around the room.
The photographs.
The documents.
The death certificate.
Everything seemed to shift beneath his feet.
"I remember enough."
"No."
The voice became colder.
"You remember what they allowed you to remember."
Victor's hand tightened around his weapon.
"Who are you?"
A pause.
Then:
"Someone your wife trusted."
Victor stared into the darkness.
"My wife is dead."
"I know."
"Then how could she trust you?"
"She trusted me before she knew I would betray her."
Victor's breathing stopped.
"Betray her?"
The voice said nothing.
Victor suddenly heard footsteps.
Slow.
Deliberate.
Coming from the other side of the room.
A shadow moved across the wall.
Then—
the emergency lights came on.
Victor raised his weapon.
A man stood at the far end of the chamber.
Older.
Thin.
Gray-haired.
Wearing a dark suit.
Victor stared.
The gun nearly slipped from his hand.
"No."
The man smiled.
"Hello, Victor."
Victor whispered one word.
"Daniel."
Daniel Hale had been dead for eighteen years.
At least, according to every official record.
Victor remembered his funeral.
The black coffin.
The rain.
The closed casket.
The priest.
The photographs.
He remembered standing beside Evelyn's grave and thinking that the world had become a place where everyone he loved could disappear.
Daniel had been Evelyn's older brother.
Victor's best friend.
The man who had introduced them.
The man who had stood beside Victor at their wedding.
The man who had helped build the first version of Victor's company.
And the man who supposedly died in a private plane crash three months before Evelyn.
Victor stared at him.
"You're dead."
Daniel smiled.
"So they told you."
"I saw the coffin."
"You saw a coffin."
"I identified your body."
"No."
Daniel shook his head.
"You identified what they wanted you to identify."
Victor raised the weapon higher.
"Where is Ethan?"
Daniel's expression changed.
"Still protecting the boy."
"From you?"
"From everyone."
Victor stepped forward.
"Give him to me."
Daniel sighed.
"You never listen."
"Give me my son."
"He isn't your son."
Victor froze.
"What?"
Daniel's voice became quiet.
"Not biologically."
Victor's face hardened.
"Don't."
"Evelyn knew."
"Don't say her name."
"She knew before Ethan was born."
Victor's hand trembled.
"You're lying."
Daniel nodded toward the folder.
"Open the blue file."
Victor looked at the table.
There were several folders.
Red.
Black.
White.
Blue.
He opened the blue one.
Inside was a birth certificate.
Victor's eyes moved across the page.
Then stopped.
The name of Ethan's biological father was blank.
Victor frowned.
"There's no father."
"Exactly."
"What does that mean?"
Daniel didn't answer.
Victor turned the page.
A second document.
A DNA test.
The results were marked:
INCONCLUSIVE.
Victor stared.
"What is this?"
"Evelyn never wanted you to know."
"Know what?"
"That she couldn't identify Ethan's father."
Victor's face went pale.
"No."
"She was pregnant when you married her."
"I know."
"But she never told you how far along she was."
Victor looked at the document.
He remembered.
The wedding.
Evelyn's nervous smile.
Her insistence that they wait before announcing the pregnancy.
Her fear.
He had thought it was happiness.
Maybe it wasn't.
Daniel continued.
"Evelyn was investigating someone."
"Who?"
"Someone inside your company."
Victor looked up.
"Who?"
Daniel smiled.
"You're still not asking the right question."
Victor slammed the folder down.
"Enough!"
He grabbed Daniel by the collar.
"Where is my son?"
Daniel didn't resist.
"Upstairs."
Victor froze.
"What?"
"He's never been downstairs."
"Then why did I hear him?"
"Because someone played the recording."
Victor's eyes widened.
"The scream."
"Yes."
"You recorded Ethan."
"No."
Daniel pointed toward the wall.
Victor looked.
A small speaker was hidden inside the stone.
Daniel continued.
"That recording was made yesterday."
Victor's face hardened.
"Where?"
Daniel didn't answer.
Victor turned toward the steel door.
"Ethan!"
No response.
"Daddy!"
The voice came again.
But something was wrong.
Victor listened.
The voice sounded too distant.
Too clean.
It wasn't coming from behind the door.
It was coming from the speaker.
He realized—
Ethan was never here.
The scream had been a recording.
Victor turned back.
"Where is he?"
Daniel looked at him.
"At the mansion."
Victor stared.
"With Lily?"
"No."
"Then who?"
Daniel's expression became grim.
"Serena."
Victor ran.
He tore up the staircase.
Across the corridor.
Through the bedroom.
Down the main hall.
"Ethan!"
Nothing.
The mansion was empty.
Too empty.
The front door was open.
Rain blew across the marble steps.
Victor rushed outside.
His security vehicles were gone.
The guards—
gone.
Lily—
gone.
Serena—
gone.
Ethan—
gone.
Victor's phone vibrated.
A message.
One photograph.
Ethan sitting in the back of a black car.
His hands weren't tied.
He looked frightened.
Underneath the photograph:
COME ALONE.
Then another message appeared.
OR YOUR SON LEARNS WHAT HAPPENED TO HIS MOTHER.
Victor stared at the screen.
A third message.
A location.
An abandoned warehouse twelve miles away.
Victor immediately called the police.
No signal.
He tried again.
Nothing.
He looked at the mansion.
Then at the road.
Someone had planned everything.
He got into his car.
The warehouse was abandoned.
At least, it appeared abandoned.
Victor parked outside.
He stepped out.
Rain hit his face.
The large metal doors were open.
He entered.
"Ethan?"
His voice echoed.
No answer.
He walked farther.
"Ethan!"
A light turned on.
One bulb.
Then another.
Then another.
A path of lights led deeper into the warehouse.
Victor followed.
At the end stood a chair.
On it was Ethan's stuffed rabbit.
Victor stopped.
"Ethan?"
A voice answered.
"You're early."
Serena stepped out.
Victor raised his weapon.
"Where is my son?"
She smiled.
"Safe."
"Where?"
"Do you remember the first time you saw me?"
Victor frowned.
"Three years ago."
"No."
She shook her head.
"That's when you were introduced."
Victor's expression changed.
"You knew me before."
"Yes."
"How?"
Serena stepped closer.
"I knew Evelyn."
Victor's eyes narrowed.
"Everyone keeps saying that."
"Because it's true."
"Then tell me what happened to her."
Serena looked away.
"I tried to warn her."
"About what?"
"You."
Victor froze.
"Me?"
"She discovered something."
"What?"
"That you were being watched."
Victor lowered the weapon slightly.
"By whom?"
Serena whispered:
"Your own father."
Victor stared.
"My father died twenty-five years ago."
"That's what you were told."
"No."
"Your father didn't die."
Victor's face went blank.
"Then where is he?"
Serena smiled.
"Under this house."
Victor's blood ran cold.
"What?"
"The mansion wasn't built for you."
"Then who?"
"Your father."
Victor remembered the sealed room.
The tunnels.
The hidden archive.
The photographs.
Everything suddenly made sense.
Serena continued.
"He built the house over an underground facility."
"Why?"
"To hide his business."
"What business?"
She hesitated.
"People."
Victor stared.
"What does that mean?"
"Identities."
"Money."
"Documents."
"Children."
Victor's face hardened.
"What children?"
"Children who were trained to become someone else."
Victor shook his head.
"No."
Serena looked at him.
"You think the world is built on truth."
"It isn't."
"Your father knew that."
She pulled a photograph from her pocket.
Victor looked.
A young boy stood in a white room.
The boy was maybe six.
Victor stared.
The boy looked exactly like him.
Except—
Victor didn't remember him.
"What is this?"
Serena whispered:
"That's you."
"No."
"Yes."
"I never lived there."
"You did."
Victor stared at the photograph.
His memory suddenly flashed.
White walls.
A locked door.
A man in a gray coat.
A little boy crying.
Victor—
as a child.
He staggered.
"No."
Serena stepped closer.
"Your father erased the memory."
"Why?"
"Because you weren't the only child."
Victor looked at her.
"There were three."
His face went pale.
"Three what?"
"Three boys."
"All trained to become Victor Hale."
Victor couldn't speak.
"One died."
"One disappeared."
"And one became you."
Victor stared at the photograph.
"Which one am I?"
Serena smiled.
"That's the question Evelyn died trying to answer."
A gunshot exploded.
Serena fell.
Victor spun.
Daniel stood behind her.
"Victor!"
Victor rushed toward Serena.
She was alive.
Blood stained her shoulder.
Daniel lowered his weapon.
"I told you to stay away."
Victor stared at him.
"You shot her."
"She was about to kill you."
Serena laughed weakly.
"You still believe him?"
Victor looked between them.
"Who do I believe?"
Neither answered.
Then—
a child's voice came from the warehouse speakers.
"Daddy?"
Victor froze.
"Ethan!"
The voice continued.
"Daddy, please."
Victor ran toward the sound.
Daniel shouted:
"Victor, wait!"
But Victor kept running.
He reached a second room.
The door opened.
Inside—
Ethan sat alone.
Victor rushed to him.
He dropped to his knees.
"Ethan!"
The boy threw his arms around him.
"Daddy!"
Victor held him.
"Are you hurt?"
Ethan shook his head.
"No."
"Where is Lily?"
"I don't know."
"Serena?"
Ethan looked frightened.
"She told me not to tell."
"Tell me what?"
Ethan whispered:
"Mommy came here."
Victor froze.
"When?"
"Before she died."
"What did she do?"
"She hid something."
"Where?"
Ethan pointed toward the wall.
"Behind the picture."
Victor looked.
There was an old photograph.
Evelyn.
Victor.
And a little Ethan.
Victor approached it.
Behind the frame was a small envelope.
He opened it.
One sentence.
THE ROOM THAT NEVER EXISTED ISN'T UNDER THE MANSION.
Victor frowned.
Then another line.
IT'S INSIDE THE PERSON YOU TRUST MOST.
Victor slowly turned.
Daniel stood in the doorway.
Serena was gone.
Again.
Victor stared at Daniel.
"What does this mean?"
Daniel didn't answer.
Victor's phone rang.
He answered.
A woman's voice whispered:
"Victor."
He recognized it instantly.
Evelyn.
His dead wife.
His face went white.
"That's impossible."
The voice continued.
"Don't trust Daniel."
Victor stared at the man in the doorway.
Daniel's expression changed.
"Evelyn?"
The recording continued.
"If you're hearing this, then I'm already dead."
Victor's hand shook.
"But the person who killed me is still alive."
Daniel stepped backward.
Victor raised his weapon.
"Who?"
The recording paused.
Then Evelyn whispered:
"The man standing in front of you."
Daniel's face became cold.
Victor's finger tightened around the trigger.
Daniel said quietly:
"Victor..."
Another voice interrupted.
Ethan.
"Daddy?"
Victor turned.
Ethan was no longer beside him.
The chair was empty.
Victor's blood froze.
He looked back at Daniel.
Daniel was gone.
And on the floor—
lay the same gold key.
But this time, there was something attached to it.
A tiny piece of paper.
Victor picked it up.
Three words were written in Evelyn's handwriting:
HE ISN'T ALONE.
Victor stared at the words.
Then he heard footsteps behind him.
One.
Two.
Three.
He slowly turned.
A man stood in the doorway.
He had Victor's face.
Exactly.
The man smiled.
"Hello, brother."
Victor couldn't move.
The man raised a photograph.
It showed three identical boys.
And beneath them was a date.
The date of Victor's birth.
Then the man said:
"You were never the first."
The lights went out.
May you like
And somewhere in the darkness—
Ethan screamed.
