Chương 5
A sudden movement came from the doorway.
Everyone turned.
A police officer standing outside the room looked nervous.
"Officer Hayes."
The detective walked over.
"What is it?"
The officer handed him a small evidence bag.
Inside was a necklace.
A simple silver necklace with a small heart pendant.
Ethan froze.
He knew it immediately.
His mother had worn it every day.
"Where did you find that?"
Officer Hayes looked toward the second floor.
"Inside a hidden compartment in Mr. Russo's office."
The room became colder.
Victor had kept it.
All these years.
Ethan reached for the necklace with shaking hands.
The moment he touched it, memories returned.
His mother holding him before bed.
Her voice promising she would always come back.
Her tears when she hugged him the last time.
He had spent years believing she abandoned him.
But now he understood.
She had been taken away.
Elena wiped her eyes.
"Victor knew."
Clara nodded.
"He knew exactly what happened."
Officer Hayes looked through the evidence.
"We need to find out where Rebecca is."
Clara looked toward the dark hallway.
"I already know where she might be."
Everyone turned to her.
"What do you mean?"
Clara hesitated.
"Before I was placed in that coffin, I found one more document."
She reached into her dress and removed a folded piece of paper.
"I hid it because I knew Victor would search me."
Officer Hayes opened it carefully.
His expression changed as he read.
"What is this?"
Clara looked at Ethan.
"It is a location."
The detective continued reading.
Then he looked up.
"A private medical facility?"
Clara nodded.
"Victor owns it through another company."
Ethan felt his heart beating faster.
"Is my mom there?"
Nobody wanted to give him false hope.
But nobody wanted to lie to him anymore.
Officer Hayes looked at the address.
"We are going to find out."
The mansion that had been filled with funeral guests only hours earlier was now filled with investigators preparing for another discovery.
The coffin remained in the center of the hall.
A reminder of what almost happened.
A reminder of how close the world came to losing Clara forever.
Ethan stood beside the broken coffin one last time before leaving.
He looked at the place where Clara had been trapped.
Then he looked at the necklace in his hand.
"I knew she wasn't gone."
Clara looked at him.
"What?"
Ethan swallowed.
"Everyone told me to forget her."
His eyes became wet.
"But I never did."
Clara placed a hand on his shoulder.
"You were the only person who kept believing."
Outside, police vehicles waited beneath the cold night sky.
The mansion's tall windows reflected flashing lights across the marble floors.
Victor Russo was being held at the station.
His empire was collapsing.
But the biggest secret he had hidden was still waiting to be uncovered.
The medical facility stood twenty miles outside the city.
A place with no public records.
No advertisements.
No signs.
Only a private gate and a name connected to one of Victor's companies.
When the police vehicles arrived, everyone expected resistance.
Instead, the building was almost completely silent.
Too silent.
Officer Hayes walked through the entrance with several officers behind him.
Clara followed.
Ethan stayed close beside her.
The receptionist looked terrified when she saw the police.
"We have a warrant," Hayes said.
The woman slowly stepped back.
"I don't know anything."
Nobody believed her.
The deeper they walked into the building, the more obvious it became that something had been hidden there.
Locked rooms.
Missing records.
Security cameras turned away from certain hallways.
Then they reached the basement.
At the end of the corridor was a single room.
The door was not locked.
Inside was a small bedroom.
A bed.
A table.
A stack of books.
And a photograph sitting beside the lamp.
Ethan walked inside slowly.
The photograph showed him again.
But this time, he was older.
Seven years old.
The same age he was now.
Someone had been watching him.
Someone had been keeping track of his life.
Then he heard it.
A weak voice from behind another door.
"Who is there?"
Ethan stopped breathing.
He knew that voice.
Even after seven years.
Even after all the pain.
He knew it.
His fingers trembled as he reached for the handle.
The door opened slowly.
And standing on the other side was the woman he had spent years believing he would never see again.
And standing on the other side was the woman he had spent years believing he would never see again.
For a moment, Ethan could not move.
His mind refused to accept what his eyes were showing him.
The woman standing in the doorway looked older than the memory he carried.
Her brown hair had streaks of gray.
Her face showed years of exhaustion.
Her hands trembled as she held onto the doorframe for support.
But her eyes were the same.
The same eyes that had watched over him when he was little.
The same eyes that had promised him he would never be alone.
"Ethan?"
Her voice cracked when she said his name.
The boy froze.
Nobody in the room spoke.
Not the officers.
Not Clara.
Not Elena.
Everyone understood that this moment belonged to him.
Ethan took one slow step forward.
Then another.
His face showed confusion, anger, relief, and pain all at once.
"You are alive."
The words came out as a whisper.
Rebecca Miller covered her mouth with both hands.
Tears filled her eyes.
"I tried to come back."
Ethan stopped.
For seven years, he had imagined this moment.
He had imagined running into her arms.
He had imagined asking where she had been.
He had imagined hearing an explanation.
But now that she was standing in front of him, all the feelings he buried for years came rushing back.
"Why didn't you?"
The question was not angry.
It was broken.
Rebecca looked down.
May you like
Because there was no easy answer.
"Because every time I tried, Victor stopped me."
