Chapter 4 - The Voice Behind The Camera
The lights turned on.
All at once.
The hidden room that had been buried behind Adrian's perfect image suddenly became bright.
Too bright.
I covered my eyes for a second.
Then I heard it.
A small clicking sound.
The camera in the corner moved.
Slowly.
It was still recording us.
Elena looked up.
Her face changed.
"He knows we're here."
I felt my stomach drop.
Not because Adrian knew.
Because he had been waiting.
The door behind us remained locked.
Elena tried the handle.
Nothing.
She pulled harder.
Still nothing.
"Claire, stay away from the door."
I stepped back.
My hands were shaking.
Six months inside a locked room had already taught me what fear felt like.
But this was different.
Back then, I was trapped because people believed a lie.
Now, I was trapped because someone was protecting the truth.
Elena reached for her radio.
"Unit three, we need backup at Bennett Medical Clinic. Possible suspect inside the building."
Static answered.
Then silence.
She looked at the radio.
"What happened?"
The lights flickered.
Once.
Twice.
The camera stopped moving.
And then a voice came from the speaker mounted above the door.
A voice I knew better than my own.
"Claire."
My blood froze.
Adrian.
"You always were curious."
His voice was calm.
Almost gentle.
The same tone he used when he convinced people he was helping me.
The same tone he used when he told doctors I needed protection from myself.
Elena stepped closer to the speaker.
"Adrian Bennett, this is Detective Ramirez. You are being recorded. Open the door immediately."
A pause.
Then a quiet laugh.
Not a nervous laugh.
Not a scared laugh.
A confident one.
"Detective, you should be careful with what you call evidence."
Elena looked at me.
I knew that look.
She understood.
He wasn't running.
He was controlling the situation.
Again.
"Where are my daughters?" I shouted.
For the first time, Adrian's voice changed.
Only slightly.
But I heard it.
"You shouldn't have involved them."
My chest tightened.
"What did you do?"
Silence.
Then:
"I protected them from you."
I closed my eyes.
The old anger came back.
The same anger I had swallowed for months.
"You never protected anyone."
The speaker stayed silent.
Then Adrian said something that made me feel cold.
"You still don't understand what happened that night."
A hidden compartment opened in the wall.
Elena immediately turned toward it.
Inside was a small monitor.
The screen turned on.
A video file appeared.
No title.
Only a date.
The date was the night I was taken away.
My breathing stopped.
Elena looked at me.
"Do you want to watch this?"
I didn't answer.
Because I already knew.
I needed to.
The screen played.
At first, there was only darkness.
Then the camera angle appeared.
It was my bedroom.
The same bedroom from the photograph.
The same room where Adrian told everyone I had lost my mind.
But this camera angle was impossible.
It wasn't from the hallway.
It wasn't from inside the room.
It was hidden behind the bookshelf.
The exact room where I was sitting now.
Watching myself.
Watching him.
My hands went numb.
"He recorded everything."
Elena whispered.
I couldn't speak.
Because on the screen, Adrian entered the room.
But he wasn't alone.
A second person followed him.
A man.
I couldn't see his face.
He stayed in the shadows.
But I recognized something.
The hospital badge.
The same badge Emma described.
The man stood beside Adrian.
And then I heard my own voice from the recording.
"What are you doing?"
The past version of me sounded scared.
Adrian closed the bedroom door.
"We're going to fix this."
"I don't need fixing."
The man behind him moved closer.
Then Adrian said:
"She won't cooperate."
My hands covered my mouth.
Because I remembered that moment.
I remembered feeling trapped.
But I never knew someone else was there.
Then the video froze.
The screen went black.
Elena stared at the monitor.
"Who was that man?"
I shook my head.
"I don't know."
But deep inside, I knew something worse.
Adrian had never worked alone.
The doctor everyone trusted.
The husband everyone defended.
The father everyone admired.
He had help.
For years.
The speaker came alive again.
"Claire."
I looked up.
"Why are you doing this?"
A long silence followed.
Then Adrian answered:
"Because I loved you."
I almost laughed.
But I couldn't.
Not anymore.
"People who love someone don't destroy them."
The room became silent.
Then he said:
"You think you know what happened because you remember what you want to remember."
Elena looked at me.
"What does that mean?"
I didn't know.
But Adrian continued.
"Your memories are incomplete."
My heart started beating faster.
"No."
"Yes."
His voice became quieter.
"The night you were admitted wasn't the first time you forgot something."
I felt cold.
Because there was one thing I had never told anyone.
Not even Elena.
A memory.
A missing piece.
A strange moment from before the clinic.
Three months before I disappeared, I woke up in my car.
Parked outside Adrian's clinic.
I didn't remember driving there.
I didn't remember leaving home.
I thought I was tired.
I thought it was stress.
Adrian told me I had episodes.
Moments where my mind disconnected.
I believed him.
Because why wouldn't I?
He was my husband.
He was a doctor.
He was the person I trusted most.
But now...
I wasn't sure anymore.
Elena noticed my expression.
"Claire."
I looked at her.
"There's something I didn't remember."
Before I could explain, the monitor changed.
A new video appeared.
Not from six months ago.
A newer recording.
From yesterday.
My heart stopped.
Because the timestamp showed the camera had been activated after Emma went to the police.
Adrian was in the room.
Talking to someone.
Someone sitting across from him.
Someone whose face was hidden.
Then Adrian said:
"She found the syringe."
The person across from him answered.
A woman's voice.
"I told you the older girl would become a problem."
I froze.
Because I knew that voice.
Elena looked at me.
"Who is that?"
The video continued.
The woman stepped into the light.
And the moment I saw her face...
I forgot how to breathe.
Because the woman standing beside Adrian was the same person who signed my psychiatric evaluation six months earlier.
The woman who told the world I was unstable.
The woman who sent me away.
My doctor.
My psychiatrist.
My former friend.
Dr. Victoria Hale.
The room became silent.
Elena stared at the screen.
"Your psychiatrist was working with him?"
I couldn't answer.
Because another detail appeared.
A document on the table beside Adrian.
The camera zoomed in.
A list of names.
Patient names.
Doctors.
Witnesses.
And at the top of the page was a title.
A title that made Elena step closer.
"Claire..."
I looked at the screen.
The document was labeled:
PROJECT RESET.
May you like
Then the video stopped.
And behind us, the locked door slowly began to open.
