Chapter 6 - Behind the WallDaniel grabbed a flashlight.
“Stay here.”
Maria shook her head.
“No.”
He looked at her.
“I've already been blamed once. I'm not staying behind while someone is inside this house.”
Olivia stepped forward.
“I’m coming too.”
“No,” Daniel said.
Sarah pulled Olivia back.
“I'll stay with you.”
Daniel opened the hidden door.
The passage was narrow.
Dust covered the floor.
Old electrical wiring lined the walls.
Maria's stomach turned.
“How old is this?”
Daniel shook his head.
“I don't know.”
He moved carefully.
Then stopped.
Footprints.
Fresh.
Someone had walked through recently.
Daniel followed them.
The passage ended beneath the staircase.
A small room was hidden inside the wall.
There was a chair.
A monitor.
A laptop.
A collection of printed photographs.
Daniel picked one up.
It showed Maria entering the house.
Another showed Sarah holding Noah.
Another showed Olivia sleeping.
Another showed Daniel leaving for work.
Maria felt sick.
“They've been watching us.”
Daniel stared at the photos.
Then he found something worse.
A folder labeled:
MARIA RIVERA
Inside were pages describing her.
Her daily schedule.
Her phone number.
Where she bought groceries.
Who she spoke to.
Even her mother's address.
Maria stepped backward.
“How do they know all this?”
Daniel looked at her.
“I don't know.”
He opened another folder.
SARAH CARTER
Then another.
NOAH CARTER
Then:
DANIEL CARTER
The final folder had no name.
Only a date.
The date was three months in the future.
Daniel opened it.
Inside was one sentence.
THE CHILD WILL BE MOVED BEFORE HIS FIRST BIRTHDAY.
Sarah screamed from the nursery.
Daniel ran back.
Sarah was holding Noah.
Her entire body was shaking.
“Someone touched him.”
“What?”
“I felt his blanket move.”
Daniel checked the baby.
No injury.
Nothing.
But a small piece of black fabric was caught around the blanket.
Daniel pulled it free.
There was a symbol stitched onto it.
A silver triangle.
Maria recognized it.
She had seen it before.
“Where?”
She pointed at Daniel's wrist.
He looked down.
His watch had the same symbol engraved on the back.
Daniel removed it.
He stared at the engraving.
“This isn't mine.”
Sarah looked at him.
“What?”
“My father gave me this watch.”
Daniel's face changed.
He had suddenly remembered something.
“When I was a child, my father used this symbol on documents.”
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
Maria looked at the hidden room.
“Maybe Ethan knows.”
Daniel called his brother.
Straight to voicemail.
He called again.
Nothing.
Then a message arrived.
From Ethan.
Stop blaming the wrong person.
Daniel stared.
Before he could respond, another message appeared.
The woman you're protecting isn't the one who needs protection.
Daniel looked at Maria.
Then at Sarah.
His blood ran cold.
May you like
A third message came.
Ask Sarah what happened the night Noah was born.
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