Chapter 5 - The Ghost in the PhotographDavid left the hospital at dawn.
The city was gray beneath a sky that looked bruised.
His father's death certificate had been issued fifteen years ago.
David had attended the funeral.
He had watched the coffin lowered into the ground.
He had carried the grief for years.
Now Sarah claimed she had seen him.
Impossible.
Unless someone was manipulating her.
Or unless the past had never been what David believed.
He drove to his father's old estate.
The house had been abandoned since the funeral.
Inside, dust covered everything.
David found the old study.
His father's desk remained exactly where it had been.
He opened the drawers.
Nothing.
Then he remembered the photograph.
The one from the warehouse.
Sarah and Voss.
Twelve years earlier.
David placed it beneath the desk lamp.
He noticed something in the background.
A house.
His father's house.
And standing near the porch—
a man.
David zoomed in.
His hands began to shake.
It was his father.
Alive.
Behind the photograph was a handwritten number.
17.
David remembered the key.
V-17.
He rushed to the basement.
Behind a stack of broken furniture was a steel door.
The key fit.
Inside was a hidden room.
Files lined the walls.
Bank records.
Contracts.
Photographs.
And a folder labeled:
PROJECT ECHO.
David opened it.
The first page made his blood freeze.
Subject: Sarah Mercer
Status: Protected Asset
Secondary Subject: David Mercer
Risk Level: Extreme
David flipped through the pages.
His father's handwriting appeared repeatedly.
One sentence had been underlined:
If Martin discovers Sarah is alive, he will destroy the Mercer family.
David's breathing stopped.
Then another document fell from the folder.
A birth certificate.
David picked it up.
The name of the father was not his.
It was:
Jonathan Voss.
David stared.
Sarah's father.
Martin's father.
The same man.
Then he saw the mother's name.
Eleanor Voss.
David stepped backward.
“No.”
The room seemed to spin.
Eleanor wasn't simply a monster who had entered his life.
She was connected to Martin.
She had been connected to Sarah's family long before David met her.
Then a voice came from the doorway.
“You finally found it.”
David turned.
May you like
Martin Voss stood there.
Holding a gun.
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