Chapter 5 - The House That Remembered Me
The message stayed on my screen.
She is awake.
Four words.
Four words that changed the way everyone looked at each other.
Adrian stared at my phone like he was looking at something impossible.
Claire looked terrified.
And Trevor...
Trevor looked like he had just seen a ghost.
I slowly lowered the phone.
"Who is awake?"
Nobody answered.
That was becoming the most painful part.
Everyone knew something.
Everyone except me.
"Stop."
My voice was quiet.
But it made all of them look at me.
"I am done standing here while people decide what I can and cannot know."
Adrian stepped closer.
"Sadie..."
"No."
I shook my head.
"You don't get to calm me down anymore."
The words seemed to hurt him.
Good.
Because I was hurting too.
"I woke up this morning thinking my biggest problem was an ex-boyfriend who hated me."
I looked at Trevor.
"Then I found out I had a husband I don't remember."
I looked at Adrian.
"Then I found out my entire past might have been erased."
My eyes moved to Claire.
"And now someone who claims to be my sister is sending messages saying someone is awake."
I took a breath.
"So tell me the truth."
Nobody spoke.
I laughed softly.
A broken laugh.
"Of course."
I looked away.
"Everyone protects me by keeping me in the dark."
Adrian's expression changed.
"I never wanted this."
"But you did it."
He didn't deny it.
That hurt more.
"I was trying to keep you alive."
"By pretending I never existed?"
His silence answered.
For the first time, I saw Adrian without the power.
Without the reputation.
Without the fear everyone else had for him.
I saw a man who had lost something.
Someone.
Me.
Claire finally spoke.
"There is a place we need to go."
Adrian immediately looked at her.
"No."
She ignored him.
"The old house."
My stomach tightened.
The house from the photograph.
The house from my dreams.
The place my mind refused to remember.
"I need to see it."
Adrian looked at me.
"Sadie."
"I need answers."
He lowered his eyes.
For a moment, he looked like he wanted to argue.
Then he stopped.
Because he knew.
I was not asking anymore.
I was demanding.
Two hours later, we left the city.
The entire drive was silent.
Adrian sat beside me in the back seat.
Claire sat across from us.
Trevor was not allowed to come.
Adrian's security team followed behind.
I watched the city disappear through the window.
The farther we traveled, the stranger I felt.
Like my body recognized the road.
Like every turn was waking up something buried inside me.
"Have I been here before?"
Adrian looked at me.
"Yes."
"When?"
He looked away.
"Three years ago."
My heart stopped.
Three years.
The same amount of time people whispered about.
The same amount of time Adrian's wife had supposedly disappeared.
"Did everyone think I was dead?"
Claire answered softly.
"Yes."
I turned toward her.
"Why?"
Her eyes filled with sadness.
"Because someone wanted everyone to believe that."
"Who?"
She looked at Adrian.
Again.
Always Adrian.
I was starting to hate how many secrets existed between them.
The car finally stopped.
I looked outside.
And forgot how to breathe.
The house was exactly like my dreams.
Large.
Quiet.
Familiar.
Terrifying.
The front gate was open.
That was the first thing Adrian noticed.
His entire body became tense.
"The gate was locked."
One of his men checked the area.
"No signs of forced entry."
Adrian's expression darkened.
"That means they wanted us to come in."
I looked at the house.
A strange feeling pulled at me.
Fear.
But also something else.
Recognition.
I stepped out of the car.
"Sadie."
Adrian's voice was warning.
I ignored him.
The moment my feet touched the ground...
A memory flashed.
A little girl running through the garden.
A woman calling my name.
A man's voice shouting.
And a younger Adrian standing at the doorway.
"Don't let her go inside!"
I grabbed my head.
"Sadie!"
Adrian reached me immediately.
"What did you see?"
I looked at him.
"You."
His face changed.
"What?"
"I saw you."
The silence that followed felt heavy.
"I saw you here."
Adrian stared at me.
Then he whispered:
"You remember."
"No."
I shook my head.
"I don't remember everything."
I looked at the house.
"But pieces are coming back."
We entered slowly.
The inside looked untouched.
Dust covered the furniture.
The air smelled old.
But somehow...
It felt like someone had been here recently.
My eyes moved across the hallway.
Then stopped.
A painting.
A family portrait.
I walked closer.
My heart started racing.
There was Adrian.
There was me.
And beside us...
A young woman.
I touched the frame.
"Her."
Claire stopped behind me.
"What?"
I pointed.
"Her."
The woman in the picture.
The woman standing beside us.
The woman I had no memory of.
But somehow...
I knew her.
"That's your sister."
Claire's voice was barely a whisper.
I stepped back.
"No."
"Sadie."
"No."
My breathing became faster.
"I know her."
Adrian looked at me.
"How?"
I stared at the woman's face.
Because suddenly I remembered.
Not everything.
Just one moment.
A voice.
A promise.
A warning.
"Don't trust him."
I looked at Adrian.
The memory made my blood run cold.
Because the voice had been hers.
My sister's.
Adrian noticed my expression.
"What did you remember?"
I couldn't answer.
Because I didn't know if I should.
Then we heard something.
A sound from upstairs.
A door closing.
Everyone froze.
Adrian immediately moved in front of me.
His men raised their weapons.
Claire whispered:
"Someone is here."
The house was supposed to be empty.
My heart pounded.
Adrian looked toward the staircase.
"Stay behind me."
But I couldn't move.
Because I knew that sound.
A door.
Opening.
Slowly.
From upstairs.
The same door from my dreams.
The one I had been running from for years.
Adrian looked at me.
"Sadie..."
I stared at the dark hallway above us.
And then a woman's voice called my name.
A voice I had not heard in three years.
"Little sister..."
May you like
The bedroom door at the end of the hallway opened.
And the woman standing there was the person I was told had died.
