Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN WHO DIED
I couldn't breathe.
“Elise?”
I called back.
The number was already disconnected.
The officer beside me frowned.
“Who was that?”
“My wife.”
He stared at me.
“The woman you said was dead?”
“Yes.”
Perrin grabbed my hand.
“She called.”
The officer exchanged a look with his partner.
Then his radio crackled.
“Possible vehicle spotted near the north gate.”
We ran outside.
Rhea's car was gone.
But the security cameras showed something worse.
Three minutes before I arrived home, a black SUV had entered the property.
It belonged to my father.
Victor Hale.
My father had died two years ago.
At least, that was what everyone believed.
I stared at the footage.
The driver stepped out.
He wasn't my father.
But he was wearing my father's old watch.
I suddenly understood.
Someone had been using my family name.
Someone had access to my house.
Someone had known about the hidden rooms.
And Rhea had not been acting alone.
The detective asked me about Elise.
I told him everything.
He became quiet.
Then he asked a question I had never considered.
“Did you personally identify the body?”
“No.”
“Did anyone?”
“The police.”
“Then you never saw your wife's face after the accident?”
“No.”
The detective looked at Perrin.
“How old was he when she disappeared?”
“Two.”
“And now?”
“Eight.”
The detective exhaled.
“Then someone has been controlling this family for six years.”
That night, I didn't sleep.
Perrin slept beside me with his fist gripping my shirt.
At 3:17 a.m., I heard movement downstairs.
I took the gun from the safe and moved silently through the hallway.
A shadow crossed the kitchen.
I raised the weapon.
“Don't move.”
The figure froze.
Then a woman's voice whispered:
“Evan.”
My hand dropped.
Elise stepped into the moonlight.
She looked thinner.
Older.
Her hair was shorter.
There was a scar across her cheek.
But they were her eyes.
My wife's eyes.
I couldn't move.
She looked at me.
“I knew you would come back for him.”
I whispered her name.
“Elise.”
She cried.
Then she said:
“I didn't leave you.”
She stepped forward.
May you like
“They took me.”
---
