Chapter 3 - What Claire Was Holding
Claire read the message twice.
“My mother.”
Adrian immediately called Marcus.
“Trace it.”
Marcus shook his head seconds later.
“Burner.”
Claire grabbed her coat.
Adrian blocked her.
“Where are you going?”
“Bellweather.”
“No.”
“They have my mother.”
“They say they have your mother.”
“You heard the call.”
“I heard someone claim she's alive.”
Claire stepped closer.
“And if they're telling the truth?”
Adrian didn't answer.
“If there is even a one-percent chance she's alive, I'm going.”
“Then I'm going with you.”
“The message says alone.”
“They also know we're together. Sending you alone is exactly what they want.”
Claire looked at the silver key.
“What does your father want?”
Adrian's expression darkened.
“We'll find out.”
Bellweather Medical Center had been abandoned for fourteen years.
The building stood outside the city, surrounded by dead parking lots and chain-link fencing.
Adrian's team remained several blocks away.
Claire and Adrian approached alone.
“You didn't have to come,” she whispered.
“Yes, I did.”
“Why?”
He looked at her.
“Because your father apparently protected me when I didn't even know I needed protecting.”
“That isn't your debt.”
“No.”
“Then why?”
Adrian paused.
“Because I don't want anything happening to you.”
Claire's heart stumbled.
“This is a strange time to become charming.”
“I kissed you before I knew you were connected to a sixteen-year conspiracy.”
“You didn't kiss me.”
“You kissed me.”
“Technicality.”
For one brief moment, she smiled.
Then they entered Bellweather.
Dust covered the lobby.
Their flashlights cut through darkness.
Room numbers remained visible along the corridors.
Claire's breathing tightened.
The silver key fit.
Adrian looked at her.
“Ready?”
“No.”
“Good answer.”
He opened the door.
Room 317 wasn't a hospital room.
It was an office.
Old filing cabinets lined the walls.
A desk stood beneath a broken window.
On the far wall was a large steel door.
Claire approached.
C.B.B. had been scratched beside its lock.
“My initials.”
Adrian examined it.
“The key.”
Claire inserted it.
Click.
The door opened.
Inside were dozens of boxes.
Files.
Photographs.
Cassette tapes.
Evidence.
Claire whispered, “My God.”
Adrian opened the nearest file.
Patient records.
Names.
Payments.
Private contracts.
Bellweather hadn't simply been a hospital.
It had been used to hide people.
Witnesses.
Employees.
Victims.
Anyone Victor Vale considered dangerous.
Claire found her mother's name.
REBECCA BENNETT.
STATUS: TRANSFERRED.
“Transferred where?”
Adrian searched.
Nothing.
Then Claire found Evelyn Vale.
STATUS: TERMINATED.
Adrian stared at the word.
Claire touched his arm.
“I'm sorry.”
He didn't speak.
A sound echoed from the hallway.
Footsteps.
Adrian killed the flashlight.
Someone entered Room 317.
Claire held her breath.
A figure appeared.
“Claire?”
She recognized the voice.
“Brooke?”
Brooke stepped into the light.
Claire stared.
“What are you doing here?”
Brooke was crying.
“I didn't know.”
“Know what?”
“That they were going to threaten your mother.”
Adrian moved toward her.
“Who?”
Brooke backed away.
“Victor Vale.”
Claire felt sick.
“You work for him?”
Brooke shook her head.
“He paid me to watch Claire.”
Claire stared at the woman who had humiliated her for years.
“How long?”
“Two years.”
“Why?”
“I didn't know. He said your father had stolen something.”
“The key.”
“Yes.”
Claire laughed bitterly.
“The dare?”
Brooke's face crumpled.
“That wasn't supposed to happen.”
“What wasn't?”
“You kissing Adrian.”
Claire froze.
Brooke looked at Adrian.
“Victor knew you were coming to the bar. He told me to keep Claire away from you.”
“So you humiliated me.”
“I thought you'd leave.”
“You thought embarrassing me about my body would make me disappear.”
Brooke looked ashamed.
“Yes.”
Claire swallowed the anger.
“Where is my mother?”
“I don't know.”
Adrian stepped forward.
“Where is my father?”
Brooke pointed toward the evidence room.
“He's coming.”
A vehicle approached outside.
Then another.
Headlights swept across the broken windows.
Adrian's phone vibrated.
Marcus.
“Twenty armed men entering the property.”
Adrian looked at Claire.
“We move.”
Claire grabbed her mother's file.
Brooke caught her arm.
“Wait.”
Claire pulled away.
Brooke whispered, “There's another door.”
Behind a filing cabinet was a narrow passage.
They entered.
The passage led underground.
Claire, Adrian, and Brooke descended.
At the bottom was another room.
A single lamp illuminated a chair.
Someone sat in it.
Claire stopped.
Brown hair streaked with gray.
Thin shoulders.
A familiar silver bracelet.
Claire couldn't breathe.
“Mom?”
The woman lifted her head.
Older.
Exhausted.
But unmistakable.
Rebecca Bennett stared at her daughter.
“Claire?”
Claire ran.
Rebecca stood and caught her.
Sixteen years disappeared in one embrace.
Claire sobbed into her mother's shoulder.
“You're alive.”
“I tried to come home.”
“Why didn't you?”
“They would've killed you.”
Adrian stood several feet away, visibly moved.
Rebecca saw him.
Her face changed.
“Evelyn's boy.”
Adrian swallowed.
“You knew my mother?”
“She saved my life.”
Before Adrian could answer, Rebecca looked toward the passage.
Fear filled her eyes.
“He's here.”
Footsteps descended.
Brooke backed toward the wall.
Claire held her mother.
Adrian stepped in front of them.
A man's voice echoed through the tunnel.
“Adrian.”
Adrian went still.
Claire knew immediately.
Victor Vale.
The footsteps stopped outside the door.
Then Victor laughed softly.
“Son, open the door. There's something Rebecca has never told you about the night your mother died.”
The handle began turning.
Rebecca grabbed Adrian's arm.
“Don't listen to him.”
Adrian looked at her.
Rebecca's face had gone white.
“Why?”
She whispered, “Because Evelyn didn't die in Room 317.”
May you like
The door opened.
And Victor Vale stepped inside.
