Chương 9
People crossed streets.
Stores closed for the night.
Marcus kept looking at Naomi in the passenger seat.
Not staring.
Just checking.
Making sure she was real.
She noticed.
“You can stop doing that.”
“Doing what?”
“Looking at me like I’m going to disappear.”
He gripped the steering wheel.
“I’m trying to believe you’re here.”
Naomi looked out the window.
“I spent five years trying to believe you were safe.”
The sentence stayed with him.
Not because it answered anything.
Because it created more questions.
They reached the storage facility twenty minutes later.
It was an old building behind a row of warehouses.
The kind of place people used when they wanted to put things somewhere they did not want to see every day.
Marcus parked.
Neither of them moved.
“This is mine?” he asked.
Naomi nodded.
“Yes.”
“How did you get access?”
“I had a key.”
“You had a key to something in my name?”
“I opened it once.”
“When?”
“After you were told I was gone.”
Marcus turned toward her.
“You came here after?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Naomi looked at the building.
“Because I needed to know if they found it.”
“Who?”
She did not answer.
Again.
Marcus almost said something.
Then he stopped.
He was beginning to understand that Naomi was not hiding things to manipulate him.
She was hiding things because she was afraid.
That did not make it acceptable.
But it made it human.
They walked inside.
The facility was quiet.
A man at the front desk barely looked up.
Naomi approached.
“Unit 418.”
The employee typed something into the computer.
Then frowned.
Marcus noticed.
“What?”
The employee looked between them.
“Are you Mr. Vale?”
Marcus felt his stomach tighten.
“Yes.”
The employee looked back at the screen.
“You haven’t accessed this unit in five years.”
Naomi looked down.
“Can we get in?”
The employee hesitated.
“Your account has been inactive.”
Marcus frowned.
“What does that mean?”
“It means someone paid the storage fees, but the account was flagged.”
“Flagged by who?”
The employee shrugged.
“I don’t know.”
Marcus looked at Naomi.
She looked worried.
Not surprised.
Worried.
The employee handed them a temporary access card.
“Unit is at the end of the hallway.”
They walked away.
The fluorescent lights above them hummed.
Every step echoed.
Marcus felt like he was walking toward a version of himself he had never met.
When they reached the door, Naomi stopped.
“I need you to understand something.”
Marcus looked at her.
“What?”
“If what’s inside changes what you believe…”
She paused.
“Don’t blame yourself for believing what you were told.”
Marcus stared.
“That sounds like something you’ve been trying to tell yourself.”
Her eyes moved away.
Maybe it was.
Maybe it was not.
She swiped the card.
The lock clicked.
The door opened.
Inside was darkness.
Marcus reached for the light.
The room came alive.
Boxes lined the walls.
Old furniture.
A broken lamp.
A suitcase.
Nothing unusual.
Nothing that looked like a secret.
He stepped inside.
“This is it?”
Naomi walked past him.
“No.”
She moved toward the back corner.
There was a wooden cabinet against the wall.
Marcus frowned.
“That wasn’t here before.”
Naomi looked at it.
“It was.”
“You remember?”
“Yes.”
She opened the cabinet.
Inside was an empty space.
Marcus stared.
“Where is everything?”
Naomi did not answer.
Because she was staring at something else.
A small envelope sitting on the shelf.
Her name was written on it.
Not Marcus’s.
Hers.
Naomi reached for it.
Then stopped.
“Don’t.”
Marcus looked at her.
“Why?”
Her hand trembled slightly.
“Because I didn’t put that there.”
The room became silent.
Marcus looked at the envelope.
Then at Naomi.
“Who did?”
Naomi shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
For a moment, neither of them moved.
Then Marcus noticed something.
The envelope was not old.
The paper was clean.
The edges were sharp.
Someone had placed it there recently.
Someone knew they would come.
Marcus stepped closer.
“Naomi.”
She looked at him.
“What?”
He pointed.
“There’s a date.”
Her eyes moved to the corner of the envelope.
The date was from three days earlier.
Three days after Naomi returned to the hotel.
Three days after she decided to let Marcus see her.
Marcus felt the same cold feeling return.
The same feeling from the moment Daniel entered the lobby.
Someone was not discovering their secrets.
Someone was leaving them behind.
Waiting.
Naomi slowly picked up the envelope.
And before she opened it, her phone began ringing again.
This time, she did not hide the screen.
Marcus saw the name.
Daniel Mercer.
Naomi answered.
Neither of them spoke.
Then Daniel’s voice came through the phone.
“Did you find the box?”
Naomi looked at Marcus.
Marcus felt every muscle in his body tighten.
Because Daniel knew.
He knew exactly where they were.
Daniel’s voice came through the phone again.
“Naomi, if you found it, you need to leave.”
Marcus looked at the phone in her hand.
Naomi did not answer.
“Who else is there?” Daniel asked.
Her eyes moved toward Marcus.
That small movement told him everything.
Daniel knew Marcus was there.
“How?” Marcus whispered.
Naomi covered the phone slightly.
“I don’t know.”
The old anger almost returned.
Then he stopped himself.
Not because he was calm.
Because there was no room left for anger.
Only decisions.
Naomi lifted the phone again.
“Why did you put this here?”
Daniel was silent.
The silence lasted long enough that Marcus wondered if the call had disconnected.
Then Daniel said, “Because you were never going to tell him.”
Naomi’s face hardened.
“You don’t get to decide what I tell him.”
“I decided five years ago when nobody else would.”
Marcus stepped closer.
“What does that mean?”
Daniel ignored him.
“Naomi, listen to me.”
“No.”
“You don’t understand what you’re opening.”
“I understand more than I did before.”
Daniel sighed.
Not like someone defeated.
Like someone exhausted.
“There is a file inside that envelope.”
Naomi looked at it.
“A file you created?”
May you like
“No.”
“Then why is my name on it?”
