Chapter 6 - The Woman Behind the Wall
Daniel shoved past Marcus and climbed into the passage.
“Daniel!” Sarah called.
He kept going.
Marcus followed, then Sarah despite every instinct telling her not to.
The passage was barely wide enough for one person. Dust coated the wooden beams. Electrical wires ran along one side, and a line of old service doors disappeared into darkness.
The scream had come from above.
They reached a narrow ladder and climbed into a sealed storage room behind the attic.
A mattress lay on the floor.
There were bottled waters, canned food, clean clothes, and prescription pill bottles with the labels torn off.
Someone had been living there.
Daniel saw the photograph first.
It was taped to the wall.
Emily holding newborn Noah and Mia.
He touched the picture with two fingers.
“Emily?”
A shadow moved behind a stack of trunks.
Marcus raised his flashlight.
A woman stepped out.
She was painfully thin, barefoot, with dark hair cut unevenly at her shoulders.
Daniel made a sound Sarah would never forget.
Not a word.
A broken breath.
The woman stared at him.
“Daniel?”
He staggered forward.
“Emily.”
She started crying before he reached her.
Vanessa appeared at the attic doorway behind them.
“No.”
Emily recoiled violently.
“Keep her away from me!”
Daniel turned.
Vanessa backed up. “This is insane. That woman is not Emily.”
Emily lifted her left hand.
A pale scar crossed her palm.
Daniel stared at it.
“You got that opening the wine bottle in Napa,” he whispered.
Emily nodded through tears. “You drove me to urgent care and fainted when they stitched it.”
Daniel’s knees nearly gave out.
Vanessa ran.
Marcus shouted and went after her.
Sarah stayed with Emily while Daniel wrapped his coat around her shoulders.
“Where have you been?” he asked.
Emily’s face tightened with terror.
“I don’t know all of it. They kept moving me.”
“Who?”
She looked toward the door Vanessa had fled through.
“Vanessa.”
Daniel’s face turned white.
Emily gripped his wrist.
“And Charles.”
Daniel froze.
Charles Mercer was his older brother.
May you like
Emily leaned closer.
“They didn’t just want me gone,” she whispered. “They wanted the twins.”
