Chapter 15 - The Last DoorSmoke filled the warehouse.
Sprinklers exploded overhead.
Victor disappeared into the darkness.
Julian grabbed Toby.
Evelyn pulled Cassandra behind a concrete pillar.
"Why did you come back?" Evelyn demanded.
Cassandra looked at her.
"Because I owe you a life."
"You owe me two years."
"I know."
Cassandra reached into her coat.
She pulled out a key.
"Your father built one final room."
Julian stared at it.
"Where?"
"Under the cemetery."
Reed looked at Cassandra.
"You're saying there's another bunker?"
Cassandra nodded.
"The last door."
Victor suddenly appeared at the end of the corridor.
He raised his weapon.
Cassandra stepped in front of Evelyn.
The gun fired.
Cassandra collapsed.
Julian caught her.
"Stay with me."
She looked at Evelyn.
"I'm sorry."
Then she looked at Julian.
"Your father wasn't protecting you from Victor."
Julian froze.
"Then who?"
Cassandra smiled weakly.
"Your mother."
Julian's face went blank.
"My mother died when I was six."
Cassandra whispered:
"That's what they wanted you to believe."
She closed her eyes.
Outside, police sirens screamed.
Julian stood slowly.
Evelyn took his hand.
Toby clung to his other side.
For two years, Julian had believed his family was destroyed by one woman's jealousy.
Now he understood.
Cassandra had been only one piece of something much larger.
His father had hidden secrets.
His mother had supposedly died.
Victor wanted the ledger.
And someone had spent years controlling the Vale family from the shadows.
Julian looked at the key in Cassandra's hand.
On its metal surface was a single engraved number:
07.
Reed stared at it.
"What does seven mean?"
Julian shook his head.
"I don't know."
Evelyn looked toward the dark road beyond the warehouse.
"I do."
Everyone turned toward her.
She whispered:
"Seven was the number on the door where my father disappeared."
Silence.
Then Julian's phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
For several seconds, nobody spoke.
Then a woman's voice came through the speaker.
A voice Julian had not heard since childhood.
A voice he remembered from the dreams he had spent his entire life trying to forget.
"Julian."
His knees nearly gave out.
Evelyn grabbed his arm.
He couldn't breathe.
"Mom?"
The woman on the other end began to cry.
"I'm sorry, sweetheart."
Julian closed his eyes.
"Where are you?"
A pause.
Then:
"Behind the last door."
The call ended.
Julian stared at the phone.
Toby whispered:
"Dad?"
Julian looked at his family.
The woman he had buried was alive.
The woman he thought had saved him had lied.
The woman he thought was dead was calling him.
And somewhere beneath the ground, another secret was waiting.
Julian tightened his grip around Evelyn's hand.
This time, he wasn't running from the truth.
He was going to tear it out of the darkness himself.
He looked at Detective Reed.
"Get every officer you can."
Reed nodded.
"Where are we going?"
Julian looked at the key.
"Home."
Evelyn stared at him.
"Our home?"
Julian shook his head.
"No."
He looked toward the distant cemetery.
"The home they buried."
Behind them, Cassandra's eyes slowly opened.
She whispered one final warning.
"Don't open Door Seven."
Julian stopped.
"Why?"
Cassandra looked terrified for the first time.
"Because the person behind it isn't your mother."
The lights went out.
May you like
And somewhere in the darkness—
a little girl began to sing Evelyn's lullaby.
