Chapter 13 - THE HOUSE BENEATH THE MOUNTAIN
The New Dawn property stood beyond the abandoned mining road.
The main house was nothing more than a burned foundation surrounded by pine trees.
Behind it, a rusted storm door led underground.
Raymond had left it open.
Owen and the state police remained half a mile away.
Boone’s bikers spread through the woods.
Jack, Emily, and I entered together.
The underground nursery smelled of damp concrete.
Faded blue animals had been painted along the walls.
Small metal cribs remained lined against one side.
Names had been scratched into the paint.
Some belonged to children listed in the ledger.
Others did not.
There had been more than forty-one.
A light burned at the far end of the corridor.
Raymond sat behind a wooden desk.
The final payment page rested beneath his hand.
Boxes of records surrounded him.
A gasoline trail ran across the floor.
He held a pistol in one hand and a lighter in the other.
“I asked Laura to come alone.”
Jack removed his sling.
“You ask for many things.”
Raymond looked at the bandage on his shoulder.
“You should have died.”
“You have spent your life deciding who should die.”
“That ends tonight.”
Emily looked around the nursery.
“Was I kept here?”
“For three hours.”
“Did you hold me?”
“No.”
“Did my mother?”
Raymond looked toward me.
“Laura was unconscious.”
Emily meant Margaret.
Raymond understood.
“Margaret held both of you.”
“She sang while she waited for Thomas.”
“What did she sing?”
Raymond’s expression shifted.
“An old lullaby.”
Emily began humming.
A simple melody filled the concrete room.
I remembered it.
Margaret had sung the same song whenever I had nightmares as a child.
Jack’s eyes moved toward Emily.
Dolores must have sung it to her.
The song had traveled through the lie.
Raymond placed the lighter beside the gasoline trail.
“Give me the copies.”
“No,” I said.
“Then the records burn.”
“The records have already been copied.”
“Not this page.”
He lifted the final payment record.
“What does it say?”
He smiled.
“It says Henry Bennett purchased Jack.”
The room became silent.
“My father bought my son?”
“He paid Thomas Mercer twenty thousand dollars.”
Jack looked at me.
The betrayal showed on his face.
Raymond continued.
“Henry did not trust Margaret.”
“He believed she would return the baby to Laura.”
“He paid Thomas to disappear permanently.”
“Why?”
“Because Henry knew Daniel’s family would claim the child.”
“He wanted the scandal buried.”
“My father was protecting himself.”
“As always.”
I stared at the payment page.
Henry had tried to expose New Dawn.
He had also used it.
He had purchased silence with his own grandson’s life.
Jack’s voice was quiet.
“Everyone chose what happened to me except me.”
Emily stepped beside him.
“Not anymore.”
Raymond stood.
“You think blood makes you a family?”
“No,” Jack said.
“Choice does.”
He looked toward me.
“And we have not made that choice yet.”
The words hurt.
They were also fair.
I had given birth to him.
I had not raised him.
Blood did not grant me immediate ownership of his love.
Raymond flicked the lighter.
Owen’s voice came through the corridor.
“Put it down.”
Raymond aimed the pistol toward the entrance.
Owen stood alone.
He had removed his badge and gun belt.
“You came without a weapon?” Raymond asked.
“I came as Rebecca Sloan’s son.”
Raymond laughed.
“You came as the child I raised.”
“You raised me inside a lie.”
“I gave you a home.”
“You gave me the home you stole from my mother.”
Raymond’s hand tightened around the gun.
“I made you sheriff.”
“You made me protect your crimes without knowing.”
Owen took another step.
“Tell me where Rebecca is buried.”
“You already know.”
“I want to hear you say her name.”
Raymond’s face hardened.
“She was weak.”
Owen moved again.
“She fought you.”
“She lost.”
“She saved me.”
Raymond raised the pistol.
Jack lunged toward Emily and me.
The gun fired.
Owen fell against the wall.
The lighter slipped from Raymond’s hand.
May you like
It landed in the gasoline.
Fire raced across the floor.
