Chapter 14 - THE SECRET UNDER THE HOUSE
Richard had disappeared.
Grace searched every room.
Nothing.
Then she found the basement door open.
She had lived in this house for years.
She had never noticed the second lock.
Michael arrived twenty minutes later.
He examined the mechanism.
"Your father installed this."
Grace stared.
"Why?"
"Because this house wasn't originally yours."
"What?"
Michael looked at the walls.
"This property belonged to your grandfather."
Grace's stomach tightened.
He found a hidden switch beneath a wooden panel.
The wall opened.
Behind it was a staircase.
They descended.
At the bottom was a room filled with files.
Photographs.
Hard drives.
Old newspapers.
Grace saw her father.
Victor.
Daniel.
Celeste.
Rachel.
And herself.
Hundreds of photographs.
Her childhood.
Her school.
Her first job.
Her wedding.
Her pregnancy.
Someone had been documenting her entire life.
Michael picked up a file.
"Grace."
She looked.
Inside was a document dated fifteen years earlier.
PROJECT DAUGHTER.
Her hands shook.
"What is this?"
Michael read.
"Subject: Grace Morgan."
"Why was I a subject?"
He turned another page.
"Behavioral monitoring."
Grace stared.
"They were studying me."
"Yes."
"Why?"
Michael found the final page.
The answer was worse.
SUCCESSOR SELECTION PROTOCOL.
Grace sat down.
Her father hadn't simply left her an inheritance.
He had selected her.
Her entire life had been shaped toward something.
Then she found a photograph.
A young Richard.
Standing beside Victor.
And beside another man.
Her grandfather.
But there was a fourth person.
A woman.
Grace recognized her immediately.
Her mother.
Grace whispered:
"My mother knew."
Michael looked at her.
"Apparently."
Grace turned another page.
A report.
Her mother had tried to expose the organization.
Three months before Richard's plane crash.
Then came the final line.
ELIMINATION AUTHORIZED.
Grace's breathing stopped.
"Michael."
He read it.
His face hardened.
"They killed your mother."
Grace couldn't speak.
She remembered the official story.
Her mother had died of a sudden illness when Grace was fourteen.
But the document said otherwise.
It had been murder.
And Richard had known.
A sound came from behind them.
The basement door slammed shut.
Michael turned.
Someone locked it from outside.
Then gasoline began pouring through a ventilation opening.
Grace smelled it.
"Fire."
Michael grabbed her.
"Move!"
They ran toward another passage.
Flames erupted behind them.
Smoke filled the room.
Grace grabbed the hard drive.
Michael kicked open a metal door.
They escaped into the garden.
Behind them, the hidden room burned.
Grace fell onto the grass.
The hard drive was still in her hand.
Michael looked at it.
"You saved the evidence."
Grace stared at the burning house.
"No."
She looked toward the horizon.
"I saved the truth."
Her phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
A video.
She opened it.
Noah was sitting in a room.
Alive.
Safe.
And beside him stood Richard.
Grace nearly collapsed.
Her father looked into the camera.
"I need you to understand something."
He paused.
"I didn't take Noah."
Grace stared.
"Then who did?"
May you like
Richard's face became grim.
"Your mother."
