Chapter 5 - The Enemy Inside My Own Family
The storage unit door opened slowly.
I saw a shadow first.
Then a hand.
Then a face.
And for a moment, I forgot how to breathe.
"Mom?"
The woman standing outside looked older than I remembered.
Her hair had turned completely gray.
Her face carried years of exhaustion.
But I knew her.
Elizabeth Reed.
My mother.
The woman I thought had spent fifteen years grieving beside my father's grave.
The woman who told me every day that my father's death was a tragedy we had to accept.
The woman who told me to stop searching for answers.
She looked at Lily.
Then at the open box.
And fear appeared on her face.
Not surprise.
Fear.
"What are you doing here, Nathan?"
I couldn't answer immediately.
Because the question itself made no sense.
She wasn't asking why I was in the storage facility.
She was asking why I had found the truth.
I stepped forward.
"You knew."
My mother's expression changed.
"Nathan..."
"You knew about the box."
Silence.
"You knew about my father."
Another silence.
"You knew Daniel Cross was alive."
Her eyes moved toward Marcus.
That small movement told me everything.
She wasn't shocked that Marcus was there.
She expected him.
"How long?" I asked.
My voice was quieter than I expected.
"How long have you been lying to me?"
My mother looked away.
And that hurt more than any answer.
Because a person who is innocent looks you in the eyes.
A person who is guilty avoids them.
Lily moved closer to me.
She didn't understand who my mother was.
But she understood the tension.
She understood danger.
My mother noticed her.
And her face changed.
For the first time that night, I saw something different.
Not fear.
Regret.
"She shouldn't be here."
Those words made my blood run cold.
I stepped between them.
"Don't talk about her like that."
My mother looked at me.
"You don't understand what she is connected to."
"She's a child."
"She's evidence."
The room became silent.
I stared at her.
"What did you say?"
My mother closed her eyes.
Like she realized she had said too much.
"Nothing."
"No."
I shook my head.
"Say it again."
She looked at the box.
Then at the documents.
Then at me.
"Nathan, you need to listen to me."
"Fifteen years."
My voice cracked.
"Fifteen years you let me believe my father died because of an accident."
"I was protecting you."
"No."
I stepped closer.
"You were protecting yourself."
The words hurt her.
I saw it.
But I didn't stop.
Because for years, I had carried the pain of losing my father.
I had blamed myself.
I had wondered if I had called him that night.
If I had asked him where he was going.
If I had done something different.
And now I was learning that everyone around me had known the truth.
Everyone except me.
My mother whispered:
"Your father was going to destroy everything."
I froze.
"What?"
"He was going to expose the company."
"Because he found criminals inside it."
"Because he was destroying the family."
Her answer shocked me.
Not because I believed her.
Because she believed herself.
"You think he was wrong?"
She looked at me.
"I think your father forgot what it meant to protect his own."
I looked at Marcus.
He looked uncomfortable.
"Did you know about this?"
He didn't answer.
That was enough.
I laughed once.
Not because anything was funny.
Because I didn't know what else to do.
"Everyone knew."
I looked around the room.
"My mother."
"My father's closest friend."
"My own employee."
"Everyone knew except me."
My mother stepped closer.
"Nathan, please."
"Don't."
I raised my hand.
"Don't say my name like you still know me."
Her face broke slightly.
But I was too angry to care.
I picked up the documents from the box.
"You said my father was destroying the family."
I held up the investigation file.
"Then explain this."
She didn't move.
"Explain why he was investigating Reed International."
No answer.
"Explain why Lily's family was targeted."
Still nothing.
"Explain why your name appears in these files."
The silence was immediate.
Too immediate.
I looked at her.
"You knew."
My mother's face turned pale.
"Who told you that?"
I stared at her.
"That's your first question?"
She realized her mistake.
But it was too late.
I opened the file.
Inside were pages my father had written.
One name appeared repeatedly.
Elizabeth Reed.
My mother.
The person who raised me.
The person who held my hand at my father's funeral.
The person who told me everything would be okay.
The person who had been hiding the truth.
"I don't understand."
My voice became quieter.
"Why?"
My mother looked at Lily.
Then she said:
"Because your father was going to choose strangers over his own family."
I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
"Those strangers were innocent people."
"You don't know the whole story."
"Then tell me."
She didn't.
Instead, she walked toward the box.
"No."
I moved in front of her.
"What are you doing?"
"You need to leave this place."
"Why?"
Her eyes met mine.
"Because they know you found it."
Before I could respond, every light inside the storage facility turned on.
Bright.
Sudden.
The hallway outside filled with footsteps.
Multiple footsteps.
Marcus immediately reached for his phone.
His face changed.
"What?"
I looked at him.
"What is it?"
He stared at the screen.
"No signal."
"That makes no sense."
Then I noticed something.
The storage facility manager's office lights were off.
The cameras above us were moving.
All of them.
Turning toward our unit.
Someone wasn't trying to hide anymore.
Someone wanted us to know we were being watched.
My mother whispered:
"Nathan, you need to trust me now."
I almost laughed.
"After everything?"
She looked terrified.
"Yes."
"Why?"
She took a step closer.
"Because the person who started this..."
She stopped.
I waited.
"The person who destroyed your father..."
Another pause.
"The person who has been controlling Reed International for fifteen years..."
Her voice became almost silent.
"...is standing closer to you than you think."
I felt my stomach tighten.
"What does that mean?"
My mother looked directly behind me.
Not at Marcus.
Not at Lily.
At the entrance of the storage unit.
I slowly turned.
Nobody was there.
But then my phone vibrated.
A new message appeared.
From an unknown number.
One sentence.
"Ask your mother why she buried the second child."
I looked at Lily.
Then at my mother.
Her face had lost all color.
May you like
Because she knew exactly what the message meant.
And before I could ask another question, the storage facility door behind us opened again, revealing someone who had been missing for fifteen years.
