Chapter 4 - The Name Hidden Inside My Family
The hidden door slammed shut behind us.
I turned around immediately.
The room was sealed.
The bookshelf had returned to its original position, hiding the entrance like it had never existed.
I grabbed the edge of the shelf and pulled.
Nothing.
I pushed.
Nothing.
The secret room that had revealed fifteen years of lies was now locked away again.
Behind me, the computer screen remained black.
Marcus's message was gone.
But his final words stayed in my head.
The person who destroyed our family has been standing beside you for fifteen years.
I looked at Emily.
She was crying silently.
Not because she was afraid.
Because she already knew who he meant.
"Tell me the name," I said.
She didn't answer.
"Emily."
Her eyes lifted.
"You don't want to know."
I almost laughed.
"My brother disappeared. My nephews vanished from my house. A child I have never met knows secrets about my family. You think I don't want answers?"
She looked toward Lily.
The little girl was standing near the desk, staring at Marcus's photograph.
"He told me not to say anything unless you found the room."
My chest tightened.
"Who told you?"
"Marcus."
The room went quiet.
I walked toward her.
"Lily, I need you to tell me everything."
She looked at me with eyes far older than a six-year-old child should have.
"He said you would be angry."
"Why?"
"Because you would think he chose them over you."
That sentence hit harder than I expected.
Because it was exactly what I had spent fifteen years believing.
Marcus left.
Marcus chose something else.
Marcus chose a secret life instead of his family.
But now I wondered if that was the truth.
Or just the story someone wanted me to believe.
I turned back to Emily.
"Who was Eleanor Cross?"
Emily wiped her tears.
"Marcus met her when he was investigating something."
"What something?"
She hesitated.
"Your company."
I froze.
"My company?"
Fifteen years ago, before I became a private investigator, Marcus and I had inherited a small security technology company from our father.
It was supposed to be our future.
But after Marcus disappeared, I sold my shares.
I walked away from everything connected to that life.
I thought I was leaving behind pain.
Apparently, I had left behind a mystery.
"What does my company have to do with this?"
Emily looked down.
"Marcus discovered someone inside the company was selling information."
"What information?"
She whispered.
"People."
I stared at her.
"What do you mean?"
"Missing people."
The words felt impossible.
But somehow, after everything I had seen tonight, they made sense.
Marcus wasn't chasing a person.
He was chasing a system.
A network.
Something that had been hidden for years.
I walked back to the desk.
The files were still there.
The photographs.
The names.
The evidence my brother had collected.
I opened another folder.
Inside were pages of notes.
Dates.
Locations.
Payments.
Names of people who had vanished.
Then I saw something that made my hands shake.
My name.
Daniel Vale.
Written at the top of a page.
I read the first line.
"Subject: Daniel Vale."
My heart stopped.
I continued.
"Marcus's brother. Unaware of the full operation. Protected by ignorance."
Protected.
That word bothered me.
I flipped the page.
More writing.
"Do not reveal the truth to Daniel unless absolutely necessary."
I felt anger rising.
Everyone had been protecting me.
Everyone except me.
My entire life, people had decided what I could handle.
Marcus.
Emily.
Maybe others.
I looked at my sister.
"Who else knew?"
She stayed silent.
"Who else knew Marcus was alive?"
Her silence answered.
I walked away from her.
Because I didn't trust my own sister anymore.
Then Lily spoke.
"There was another person."
I turned.
"Who?"
She looked toward the locked bookshelf.
"The man who came to Marcus's house."
"When?"
"Before he disappeared."
I stepped closer.
"What man?"
She squeezed her stuffed rabbit.
"I don't know his name."
"What did he look like?"
She closed her eyes, trying to remember.
"He wore the same ring."
My body went cold.
"The ring from the security footage?"
She nodded.
"He told Marcus that if he didn't stop looking, everyone would disappear."
Everyone.
Not Marcus.
Not one person.
Everyone.
I looked at the photographs again.
The scratched faces.
The hidden files.
The missing people.
Then I noticed something.
A photograph sitting underneath the folder.
One I hadn't seen before.
I picked it up.
It showed Marcus.
Eleanor.
And a little girl.
Lily.
But there was something else.
A fourth person stood in the background.
The face was blurred.
But the ring was visible.
The same silver ring.
I turned the photograph over.
My breath stopped.
Because there was writing on the back.
Not Marcus's handwriting.
Someone else's.
"Daniel already knows me."
I looked around the room.
The words felt like a warning.
Not a message.
A threat.
Suddenly, every sound inside the house disappeared.
The silence was wrong.
Too perfect.
I reached for my phone.
No signal.
The security system.
Offline.
The cameras.
Disabled.
Someone had entered my estate without triggering a single alarm.
Again.
The same way Noah and Liam disappeared.
I walked quickly toward the main control panel.
The screen was completely black.
Then a message appeared.
One sentence.
"Stop searching."
I stared at it.
Another message appeared underneath.
"You already lost one brother."
My fingers tightened.
Then the final message appeared.
"You will lose another."
I turned toward Emily.
"Take the children upstairs."
She looked at me.
"What?"
"Now."
Something in my voice made her move.
She grabbed Noah and Liam.
Lily stayed behind.
I looked at her.
"You need to go."
She shook her head.
"No."
"Lily."
She looked toward the hallway.
"He's here."
My blood ran cold.
"Who?"
The little girl pointed toward the front entrance.
"He came to take me back."
I grabbed the closest weapon from the security cabinet.
A sound echoed through the house.
The front door lock clicked.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Someone was entering.
But the doors were locked from the inside.
I moved toward the entrance slowly.
The lights flickered.
The camera above the door turned on.
For the first time all night, the security system showed a live image.
A man stood outside.
Waiting.
I stepped closer to the screen.
And then I saw his face.
I dropped the tablet.
May you like
Because the man standing at my front door was the same person whose funeral I attended fifteen years ago.
Marcus Vale.
