Chapter 1 - The Hidden Safe
The flashing red and blue lights of the police cruisers illuminated my mother's manicured front lawn.
Paramedics had just rushed my pregnant wife out the front door on a stretcher.
I watched them load Claire into the back of the ambulance before the heavy doors slammed shut.
Two police officers were currently questioning my mother and brother in the living room.
Evelyn maintained her flawless composure while claiming she had simply trusted a corrupt private physician who pronounced Claire dead.
Nathan stood silently by the fireplace with a terrifyingly calm expression on his face.
I did not wait for the officers to finish their initial interrogation.
My fingers tightly gripped the cold brass key that had fallen from Claire's hand.
I slipped away from the chaotic living room and rushed down the dark hallway.
My father's old study had been strictly locked and forbidden since his sudden death five years ago.
I jammed the small brass key into the heavy oak door and twisted it violently.
The lock clicked and the door swung open into a room smelling of stale dust and old leather.
I walked directly toward the massive oil painting hanging behind his mahogany desk.
I pulled the heavy wooden frame aside to reveal the hidden steel wall safe my father had secretly installed.
The brass key slid perfectly into the manual override slot located beneath the digital keypad.
I turned the key and the heavy steel door creaked open into the dark cavity.
My hands shook as I reached inside and pulled out a thick leather-bound journal.
Beneath the journal lay a rusted medical scalpel covered in dried brown blood.
I opened the journal to the very last page my father had ever written.
The handwriting was frantic and barely legible in the dim light of the quiet study.
My father wrote that Evelyn had not actually given birth to Nathan.
She had purchased him from a horrific underground black market ring that stole infants from vulnerable mothers.
My father had finally discovered the horrifying truth and was planning to go to the federal authorities the next morning.
The very last sentence stated that Evelyn had realized he knew her darkest secret.
I suddenly understood exactly why they needed to bury Claire alive before she could expose them.
They were planning to steal my unborn child and fake Claire's death to keep the twisted family legacy intact.
A cold chill ran down my spine as a dark shadow suddenly fell across the journal pages.
I slowly turned around to face the open doorway of the silent study.
May you like
Nathan was standing there with a suppressed pistol aimed directly at my head.
"You really should have stayed overseas," my brother whispered coldly.
