Chapter 9 - The House in the Woods
The old Bell estate stood beyond the city.
No lights.
No neighbors.
No sound.
Maya stepped from the car.
Frank held a flashlight.
Arthur remained behind them.
“Your mother was kept here once,” he said.
Maya looked at him.
“Once?”
Arthur nodded.
“She escaped.”
“From Victor?”
“From everyone.”
The front door opened before they touched it.
Maya entered.
Dust covered everything.
Then she saw the wall.
Photographs.
Dozens of them.
Her childhood.
Her mother.
Her father.
And Victor Bell.
At the center of the wall was a red string connecting them all.
Frank found a hidden drawer beneath the staircase.
Inside was a cassette tape.
Maya found an old player nearby.
The tape began with her mother’s voice.
“Maya, if you ever hear this, I failed to protect you.”
Maya’s eyes filled with tears.
Elizabeth continued.
“Your father did not abandon us. He was framed.”
The lights suddenly came on.
A man stood at the end of the hallway.
Maya recognized him from the photograph.
Samuel Carter.
Her father.
He looked older.
Thinner.
But alive.
Maya took one step toward him.
Samuel whispered:
May you like
“Don’t come any closer.”
Behind him, someone pressed a gun against his back.
