Chapter 12 What Happened at 217
Ethan did not answer.
Audrey watched him from across the room.
The silence was worse than a denial.
“You remember,” she said again.
Ethan looked down.
“I remember part of it.”
“What part?”
He lifted his eyes.
“The hospital.”
Audrey's heart sank.
“Start there.”
“I was there.”
“I know.”
“I was with my father.”
“You said you didn't remember.”
“I said I didn't remember everything.”
“You let me believe you remembered nothing.”
“I was trying to understand it myself.”
Audrey shook her head.
“You always say that when the truth becomes inconvenient.”
His face tightened.
“I know how it sounds.”
“It sounds like another secret.”
Ethan took a breath.
“It was years ago. I was nine. My father woke me in the middle of the night and took me to the hospital. I didn't understand why.”
“What did you see?”
“My mother was there.”
Audrey frowned.
“Your mother?”
Ethan nodded.
“Eleanor was arguing with Richard.”
“About my mother?”
“Yes.”
“What were they saying?”
“I couldn't hear everything. I remember my father telling her that Claire had to leave.”
Audrey's pulse quickened.
“Leave the hospital?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
“Try.”
Ethan closed his eyes.
A memory surfaced.
The smell of antiseptic.
Rain tapping against a window.
His father's hand gripping his shoulder.
A woman crying behind a closed door.
A clock showing 2:17.
Then a man's voice.
You don't understand what she's carrying.
Ethan opened his eyes.
“Someone said Claire had something.”
“What?”
“I don't know.”
Audrey stared at him.
“You've been carrying this memory for years.”
“Yes.”
“And you never told me.”
“I was afraid.”
“Of what?”
“That I'd remember something that would destroy my family.”
Audrey's voice softened despite herself.
“And now?”
“Now I'm more afraid of what happens if I don't remember.”
A floorboard creaked.
Everyone turned.
Vivian stood near the entrance.
“You need to leave.”
Audrey looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because Caleb knows you're here.”
“He already knew.”
“No.”
Vivian's expression was grim.
“He knows you have the necklace.”
Audrey instinctively touched the silver pendant in her hand.
“How?”
“Because he was the one who put it around your neck.”
Audrey stared.
“You said my grandfather gave it to me.”
“He did.”
“Then why did Caleb put it on me?”
Vivian hesitated.
“Because James asked him to.”
The revelation stunned Audrey.
“James trusted Caleb?”
“Once.”
“What changed?”
Vivian looked toward the old photograph.
“Claire discovered what Caleb had done.”
“What had he done?”
“Something James never forgave.”
Audrey stepped closer.
“What?”
Before Vivian could answer, the lights went out.
A sharp metallic sound came from the hallway.
Ethan immediately moved toward Audrey.
“Everyone stay together.”
Rachel whispered, “Someone is inside.”
A door slammed.
Then another.
They heard footsteps approaching.
Ethan reached for the flashlight on his phone.
The beam swept across the room.
Nothing.
Then the phone vibrated.
A message appeared.
2:17.
Another message followed.
You have five minutes.
Audrey stared at the screen.
“Five minutes for what?”
The answer came from the speaker system.
A man's voice filled the room.
Caleb.
“Five minutes to decide which truth you want first.”
Ethan looked toward the ceiling.
“Show yourself.”
“You still think this is about you.”
“It isn't?”
“No.”
Caleb's voice became colder.
“It has never been about Ethan.”
Audrey stepped forward.
“Then say what you want.”
“You have something that belongs to my father.”
“Your father?”
“James Parker.”
Audrey's heart stopped.
Vivian closed her eyes.
Rachel looked at her.
“Is that true?”
Vivian nodded.
“Caleb is James's son.”
Audrey looked toward the speaker.
“Why are you calling him your father?”
Caleb laughed.
“Because he was.”
“You tried to kill him.”
“No.”
“You hunted him.”
“I protected him.”
Audrey frowned.
“From what?”
“From your grandmother.”
Vivian interrupted.
“Don't listen to him.”
Caleb's voice sharpened.
“You should have told her years ago.”
Vivian went silent.
Audrey looked at her.
“What is he talking about?”
Caleb continued.
“Ask Vivian what happened the night James disappeared.”
Audrey's eyes narrowed.
“You already told me.”
“I didn't tell you everything.”
Audrey felt her patience disappear.
“Then tell me now.”
The speaker crackled.
“Your grandfather didn't disappear.”
Audrey froze.
“He was taken.”
“By whom?”
Caleb paused.
“Your grandmother.”
Vivian shook her head.
“That's not true.”
Caleb laughed.
“Isn't it?”
Audrey looked at Vivian.
“You said Evelyn was protecting him.”
“She was.”
“Then why would she take him?”
“Because she was trying to keep him alive.”
Caleb's voice cut through the room.
“She locked him away.”
Audrey's stomach tightened.
“Where?”
No answer.
“Where did she take him?”
Caleb said quietly,
“Under the Parker estate.”
Audrey looked at the floor.
The hidden room suddenly seemed much larger than it had before.
“That's impossible.”
“Is it?”
Caleb continued.
“You've been standing above him for years.”
Rachel stepped backward.
“Is he saying James is still alive?”
Nobody answered.
Audrey stared at the speaker.
“Prove it.”
A moment later, the television in the adjoining room switched on by itself.
The screen showed a live video.
Audrey's breath caught.
A man sat in a dark chair.
Older.
Thin.
His silver hair had turned almost completely white.
His face was partly hidden by shadows.
But Audrey knew him.
She had seen that face in hundreds of photographs.
“Grandfather.”
Rachel covered her mouth.
Vivian looked devastated.
Ethan stared at the screen.
The man slowly raised his head.
His eyes met the camera.
Then he spoke.
“Audrey.”
She could barely breathe.
“Grandfather?”
James Parker looked directly into the camera.
“I am sorry.”
Audrey stepped toward the screen.
“Where are you?”
James looked frightened.
“Don't trust anyone.”
“Who has you?”
His eyes shifted.
“Your grandmother.”
Audrey's breath caught.
“But she's dead.”
James looked toward something outside the camera frame.
Then his face changed.
“She isn't.”
The screen went black.
Audrey stood frozen.
Rachel whispered, “What does that mean?”
Ethan moved toward her.
“We need to get out.”
“No.”
“Audrey—”
“My grandfather is alive.”
“We don't know that.”
“I saw him.”
“It could be recorded.”
She turned toward him.
“Then we find out.”
Vivian walked toward the television.
“There is something wrong.”
Audrey looked at her.
“What?”
“The room behind him.”
“What about it?”
“I've seen it before.”
“Where?”
Vivian's eyes widened.
“Your grandmother's house.”
Audrey's pulse jumped.
“The hidden room?”
“No.”
Vivian shook her head.
“A different room.”
“Where?”
Vivian stared at the screen.
“Below the old chapel.”
Ethan frowned.
“There hasn't been a chapel on the Parker property for decades.”
“There is one.”
Audrey looked at him.
“How do you know?”
“My grandmother took me there when I was a child.”
“You remember it?”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn't you tell me?”
Ethan's expression darkened.
“Because I thought it had been demolished.”
Vivian shook her head.
“It wasn't.”
She walked toward the exit.
Audrey followed.
“Where are you going?”
“To find James.”
Ethan blocked the doorway.
“Not alone.”
Vivian looked at him.
“Caleb will be waiting.”
“Then we take him by surprise.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because Caleb isn't the person you should fear.”
Audrey's stomach tightened.
“Then who?”
Vivian looked directly at her.
“Evelyn.”
Audrey shook her head.
“My grandmother is dead.”
Vivian's voice dropped.
“That is what everyone was supposed to believe.”
The room fell silent.
Then a loud crash came from outside.
Glass shattered.
Rachel screamed.
Ethan grabbed Audrey's arm and pulled her away from the window.
A dark figure moved across the garden.
Then another.
Someone shouted from outside.
“Caleb!”
Vivian looked toward the door.
“We have to go.”
They ran through the hidden passage.
Halfway down, Audrey heard a noise behind them.
Someone had entered the greenhouse.
Footsteps followed.
Fast.
Getting closer.
Ethan turned.
“Keep moving!”
Audrey ran.
The passage opened into the old cellar beneath the house.
They emerged into darkness.
Rachel leaned against the wall, breathing hard.
Vivian looked around.
“This isn't the exit.”
Audrey stared at her.
“You said it was.”
“I was wrong.”
Ethan lifted his phone.
“No signal.”
A sound came from beneath the floor.
Three knocks.
Everyone froze.
Rachel whispered,
“Did you hear that?”
Three more knocks.
Audrey crouched.
The sound came from beneath a wooden panel.
Ethan pulled it open.
A narrow staircase descended into darkness.
Audrey stared.
“There is another room.”
Vivian looked terrified.
“No.”
“What?”
“This wasn't here before.”
Ethan looked down the stairs.
“Then someone built it recently.”
Audrey took the flashlight.
“We're going down.”
Vivian grabbed her arm.
“Don't.”
Audrey looked at her.
“You said we came to find the truth.”
“I didn't mean this.”
“Why?”
Vivian's eyes filled with fear.
“Because I know what's underneath.”
“What?”
Before Vivian could answer, a voice rose from the darkness below.
An old woman's voice.
Calm.
Familiar.
“Come down, Audrey.”
Audrey stopped breathing.
Rachel whispered,
“Who is that?”
Audrey stared into the darkness.
She knew that voice.
She had heard it throughout her childhood.
At bedtime.
At family dinners.
On birthdays.
In every memory she had tried to preserve.
Her grandmother.
Evelyn Parker.
The voice came again.
“You've been looking for me for a very long time.”
Ethan stepped in front of Audrey.
“Stay behind me.”
Audrey did not move.
Because another voice had joined Evelyn's.
A man's voice.
Weak.
Frightened.
James.
“Audrey, don't come down.”
She looked at Ethan.
Then at Vivian.
Then into the darkness.
Two voices.
One dead woman.
One supposedly missing man.
And somewhere beneath the house, the truth about her marriage was waiting.
Audrey took the first step down.
“I'm coming.”