Chapter 7 - The Final Message Before The Truth
The bedroom door unlocked by itself.
Nobody moved.
Not me.
Not Thomas Reed.
Not even the person on the other side of the phone.
The voice from Emily's number was still there.
Breathing.
Waiting.
"Daniel..."
My hand tightened around the phone.
I couldn't speak.
Because my mind was fighting between two impossible things.
The woman on the phone sounded exactly like my wife.
But Emily was dead.
I looked at Reed.
His face had lost all color.
For the first time since he appeared at my door, he looked completely defeated.
Not afraid of danger.
Afraid of the truth.
"Who is this?" I whispered.
The voice on the phone became quiet.
Then she answered.
"Daniel... it's me."
My chest tightened.
"Emily?"
Reed immediately stepped forward.
"No."
I looked at him.
"What?"
He shook his head.
"Don't trust what you hear."
The voice on the phone heard him.
Then Emily's voice changed.
"Thomas."
Reed froze.
"You shouldn't be there."
The room went silent.
Because whoever was on the phone knew Reed.
Not just his name.
His voice.
His existence.
I looked between them.
"What is happening?"
Nobody answered.
The bedroom door remained closed.
But the person inside was listening.
I moved closer.
"Emily, if this is really you, tell me something only you would know."
A few seconds passed.
Then the voice answered.
"When you came home after your third deployment, you slept on the floor beside our son's bed because you were afraid your nightmares would wake him."
My breathing stopped.
Nobody knew that.
Nobody.
Not even Reed.
The voice continued.
"You thought I didn't notice."
My eyes closed.
Because I remembered that night.
I had tried to hide how damaged I was.
I thought Emily was asleep.
But she knew.
She always knew.
"It's me, Daniel."
I looked at Reed.
He whispered.
"That doesn't prove anything."
I turned toward him.
"Then what does?"
Reed didn't answer.
The bedroom door suddenly moved.
A small gap appeared.
Darkness filled the opening.
I raised my weapon.
"Who's inside?"
No answer.
Then something slid across the floor.
A photograph.
It stopped near my feet.
I picked it up.
My hands began shaking.
It was a picture of Emily.
But not the Emily I knew.
This picture was taken recently.
Very recently.
She was alive.
Standing inside a room I didn't recognize.
Behind her was a wall covered with documents.
Photos.
Names.
Including mine.
At the bottom of the picture was a handwritten message.
"I never left. I was hiding from the people you trusted."
I looked at Reed.
His expression changed.
"You didn't know?"
"No."
He looked genuinely surprised.
For the first time, I believed him.
The phone crackled.
Emily spoke again.
"Daniel, listen carefully."
I held the phone tighter.
"The people who caused this are going to try to make you choose between Thomas and me."
I looked at Reed.
"Why?"
"Because they know the truth scares you less than betrayal."
The words hit me.
Because she was right.
The hardest part wasn't discovering an enemy.
It was discovering that the people closest to me had hidden everything.
"Where are you?"
Silence.
Then:
"I can't tell you."
"Emily."
"I can't."
Her voice cracked.
"Because if I tell you, they will know where I am."
I looked around the room.
"Who are they?"
Another pause.
Then she said something that made my blood run cold.
"The person who started all of this is someone you have known your entire life."
I felt my stomach drop.
"My father?"
"No."
The answer came instantly.
"Someone else."
Before I could ask more, the call cut out.
I immediately called back.
Nothing.
The number disappeared.
Again.
Like it had never existed.
Reed looked at me.
"She is alive."
I stared at him.
"You believe that?"
He nodded slowly.
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because Emily was the only person who knew the emergency code my father created."
I frowned.
"What emergency code?"
Reed walked toward the desk.
He picked up Emily's notebook.
"Your father knew this day might come."
He opened the last page.
There was a symbol.
The same symbol from the memory card.
Reed pointed at it.
"This was not an organization symbol."
I looked closer.
"What is it?"
"A warning."
He turned the page.
Under the symbol were words.
"When the soldier finds the card, the truth begins."
I stared.
The soldier.
Not Daniel.
The soldier.
Emily knew exactly who would find it.
She planned everything.
Reed continued.
"Your wife wasn't investigating your death."
"My death?"
He nodded.
"She was investigating why someone wanted you removed."
I felt anger rising.
"They tried to kill me?"
"No."
Reed looked at me.
"They tried to erase you."
That sentence stayed in my mind.
Erase me.
My records.
My career.
My past.
Everything.
My phone suddenly vibrated.
A new message.
This time from Emily.
One file.
No text.
Only a video.
I opened it.
The screen showed Emily sitting in a dark room.
Her face looked exhausted.
But she was alive.
My knees almost gave out.
"Daniel..."
Her voice trembled.
"If you are watching this, then I failed to keep you away from the truth."
I stared at the screen.
"I need you to understand something."
She looked directly into the camera.
"I didn't disappear because I wanted to leave you."
A tear moved down her face.
"I disappeared because they made me believe you were going to die next."
I covered my mouth.
The video continued.
"The person who gave them information about you wasn't a stranger."
Emily looked down.
Then back at the camera.
"It was someone inside our family."
My heart sank.
The video froze for a second.
Then continued.
"I know who it was."
The screen started breaking apart.
Static covered Emily's face.
Her voice became distorted.
But one sentence remained clear.
"Daniel, don't go to the old military facility..."
The video suddenly stopped.
A final frame appeared.
A location.
A place I knew.
The abandoned military facility from my last mission.
The place where everything started.
Reed saw it.
His expression changed immediately.
"No."
"What?"
He stepped back.
"That's impossible."
"What is?"
He looked at the screen.
Then at me.
"That facility was destroyed ten years ago."
I stared at the location.
"But Emily sent it."
Reed shook his head.
"Daniel..."
His voice became quieter.
"Emily couldn't have recorded that video there."
"Why?"
Because Reed was looking at the timestamp.
And the date on the video was impossible.
It was recorded yesterday.
After Emily's funeral.
I felt the room disappear around me.
If Emily was alive...
If she recorded that yesterday...
Then someone else had been pretending to be her victim.
And someone had been controlling the story from the beginning.
Reed walked toward the bedroom door.
"We need to leave."
I looked at him.
"Why?"
His eyes stayed fixed on the door.
"Because whoever sent that video wanted us to see it."
A sound came from inside the bedroom.
A phone ringing.
Not mine.
Not Reed's.
A phone that was inside the locked room.
We both froze.
Then the bedroom door slowly opened.
May you like
And from inside the darkness, a voice whispered:
"Daniel..."
