PART 3: THE MOTHER WHO NEVER DIED
\nRebecca kept the gun aimed at Margaret.
\n\u201cThere is one more truth you need to know about your mother,\u201d she whispered.
\nMargaret\u2019s smile vanished.
\n\u201cPut the gun down, Rebecca.\u201d
\n\u201cNo.\u201d
\n\u201cYou have no idea what you\u2019re doing.\u201d
\n\u201cI know exactly what I\u2019m doing. I\u2019m finally telling him the truth.\u201d
\nMargaret shifted her pistol toward Rebecca.
\n\u201cThen you\u2019ll die beside him.\u201d
\nDetective Mercer groaned behind the desk, one hand pressed against his bleeding shoulder.
\n\u201cRebecca,\u201d I said carefully, \u201cwhat truth?\u201d
\nHer eyes filled with tears.
\n\u201cEmily Carter is alive.\u201d
\nFor a second, even the alarm seemed to disappear.
\nI stared at her.
\n\u201cWhat did you say?\u201d
\n\u201cYour mother survived.\u201d
\nMercer\u2019s face tightened.
\nMargaret glanced toward him.
\nThat single look told me both of them already knew.
\n\u201cYou knew?\u201d I demanded.
\nMercer struggled to sit up.
\n\u201cNathan, listen to me\u2014\u201d
\n\u201cYou told me she disappeared. You let me believe she was dead.\u201d
\n\u201cI said she was never found.\u201d
\n\u201cWhere is she?\u201d
\nHe did not answer.
\nRebecca did.
\n\u201cShe\u2019s been locked away for fifteen years.\u201d
\nMy stomach twisted.
\n\u201cLocked away where?\u201d
\nMargaret suddenly swung her gun toward Rebecca.
\nRebecca fired first.
\nThe shot struck Margaret\u2019s wrist.
\nHer pistol flew across the floor and slid beneath a filing cabinet.
\nMargaret screamed and dropped to her knees.
\nRebecca rushed forward, kicked the weapon farther away, and grabbed me by the arm.
\n\u201cWe have to leave.\u201d
\n\u201cI\u2019m not going anywhere until someone tells me where my mother is.\u201d
\n\u201cYou won\u2019t find her if Margaret\u2019s people get here first.\u201d
\n\u201cMargaret\u2019s people?\u201d
\nRebecca looked toward the dark hallway.
\n\u201cThe gunshot wasn\u2019t part of the power failure. Someone cut the electricity so she could reach you.\u201d
\nBoots pounded somewhere beyond the office.
\nMore than one person was coming.
\nMercer pulled a spare pistol from an ankle holster and pointed it toward the doorway.
\n\u201cShe\u2019s right. Take the service stairs.\u201d
\nI looked at the blood soaking through his shirt.
\n\u201cWhat about you?\u201d
\n\u201cI\u2019ll hold them here.\u201d
\nMargaret laughed through clenched teeth.
\n\u201cHe isn\u2019t protecting you, Nathan. He\u2019s protecting himself.\u201d
\nMercer aimed his weapon at her.
\n\u201cBe quiet.\u201d
\n\u201cShe deserves to know what you did,\u201d Margaret said.
\nRebecca froze.
\n\u201cWhat did he do?\u201d
\nMargaret looked directly at her.
\n\u201cHe was the officer who carried Daniel Price\u2019s body to the car.\u201d
\nMercer\u2019s face turned gray.
\nI felt the room spin again.
\n\u201cYou helped murder my father?\u201d
\n\u201cNo,\u201d Mercer said. \u201cI was undercover.\u201d
\n\u201cUndercover officers don\u2019t hide bodies.\u201d
\n\u201cI was trying to get close to the people responsible.\u201d
\n\u201cFor fifteen years?\u201d
\n\u201cI made mistakes.\u201d
\nMargaret smiled bitterly.
\n\u201cYou made money.\u201d
\nA bullet shattered the office window.
\nMercer fired twice into the hallway.
\n\u201cGo!\u201d he shouted.
\nRebecca pulled me through a side door just as another bullet struck the wall behind us.
\nWe ran down a narrow corridor lit by red emergency lights.
\nI heard Mercer firing behind us.
\nThen Margaret screamed something I could not understand.
\nRebecca led me through a stairwell and into the station\u2019s basement.
\n\u201cYou know this building?\u201d I asked.
\n\u201cI studied the floor plans.\u201d
\n\u201cWhy?\u201d
\n\u201cBecause I knew this day would come.\u201d
\nWe pushed through a metal door and entered an underground parking area.
\nA black SUV waited near the exit with its engine running.
\n\u201cGet in,\u201d Rebecca said.
\nI stopped.
\n\u201cNo.\u201d
\n\u201cNathan, we don\u2019t have time.\u201d
\n\u201cYou were sent to watch me. You lied about your name. You married me for some secret reason, and now you expect me to climb into a car with you?\u201d
\nHer face crumpled.
\n\u201cI never expected to love you.\u201d
\n\u201cThat doesn\u2019t answer me.\u201d
\n\u201cI was twenty-two when Margaret sent me to find you. She said you were dangerous. She showed me photographs of the burned car and told me your father belonged to a criminal organization. She claimed Emily had abandoned you.\u201d
\n\u201cAnd you believed her?\u201d
\n\u201cAt first.\u201d
\nShe lowered the gun.
\n\u201cI was raised to believe everything Margaret said. She found me when I was nine years old, living in foster care under a different name. She adopted me, educated me, and told me she had saved my life.\u201d
\n\u201cDid she?\u201d
\n\u201cNo. She chose me because I looked like Emily.\u201d
\nThe answer chilled me.
\n\u201cThe officer recognized Emily\u2019s face when he saw your license.\u201d
\nRebecca nodded.
\n\u201cMargaret spent years turning me into her replacement. Same hairstyle. Same necklace. Same stories. She even made me practice Emily\u2019s handwriting.\u201d
\n\u201cWhy?\u201d
\n\u201cSo if anyone started searching for Emily again, they would find me instead.\u201d
\nI remembered the young woman in the photograph.
\nThe resemblance had seemed perfect because it had been created deliberately.
\n\u201cWhy marry me?\u201d
\n\u201cMargaret wanted access to you. Your phone calls. Your mail. Your medical records. She needed to know if you remembered anything.\u201d
\n\u201cI was six months old. What could I remember?\u201d
\n\u201cNot memories.\u201d
\nRebecca opened the SUV\u2019s rear door.
\n\u201cA location.\u201d
\nShe reached beneath the seat and pulled out a small metal box.
\nInside were photographs of me taken across different years.
\nAt school.
\nAt work.
\nOutside my first apartment.
\nAt my father-in-law\u2019s funeral.
\nSomeone had been following me almost my entire life.
\nBeneath the photographs was a copy of my birth certificate.
\nThe father\u2019s name was Daniel Price.
\nThe mother\u2019s name was Emily Carter.
\nA third name had been written in the margin:
\nProject Willow.
\n\u201cWhat is that?\u201d
\nRebecca looked toward the garage entrance.
\n\u201cWe need to move.\u201d
\n\u201cTell me.\u201d
\n\u201cYour father discovered that a private medical company was paying doctors to falsify adoption records. Babies were being taken from vulnerable mothers and sold to wealthy families.\u201d
\nThe words landed like stones.
\n\u201cMargaret worked for them?\u201d
\n\u201cShe ran the operation.\u201d
\nMy throat tightened.
\n\u201cAnd Emily?\u201d
\n\u201cYour mother found evidence. She planned to expose everything.\u201d
\n\u201cThat\u2019s why they killed Daniel.\u201d
\n\u201cYes.\u201d
\n\u201cAnd took me.\u201d
\n\u201cYes.\u201d
\n\u201cWhere did I go?\u201d
\n\u201cTo a family chosen by Mercer.\u201d
\nI stared at her.
\n\u201cMy parents?\u201d
\n\u201cThe people who raised you believed the adoption was legal. They never knew.\u201d
\nMy father had died seven years ago. My mother had died two years after him.
\nThey had loved me completely.
\nWhatever crimes surrounded my birth, their love had been real.
\n\u201cWhy didn\u2019t Margaret kill me?\u201d
\n\u201cBecause Daniel hid the evidence before he died. Margaret believed he had placed something inside an item that traveled with you.\u201d
\n\u201cWhat item?\u201d
\n\u201cA stuffed blue rabbit.\u201d
\nMy breath stopped.
\nI remembered it.
\nThe faded blue rabbit had sat on a shelf in my childhood bedroom for years.
\nMy mother told me I arrived with it on the day I was adopted.
\nAfter her death, I had packed it into a box and brought it home.
\nIt was still in my attic.
\nThat was why the officer had warned me not to go home.
\nRebecca had asked me about that rabbit dozens of times during our marriage.
\nShe always pretended it was sentimental curiosity.
\n\u201cYou knew it was in our house.\u201d
\n\u201cI suspected.\u201d
\n\u201cIs that why you took me to Margaret\u2019s yesterday?\u201d
\n\u201cNo. She told me she wanted to see whether you had started remembering Emily.\u201d
\n\u201cHow could I remember her?\u201d
\n\u201cBecause she sang to you.\u201d
\nI felt something stir deep inside me.
\nA melody without words.
\nI had hummed it since childhood, usually when I was frightened.
\nRebecca had once asked where I learned it.
\nI told her I did not know.
\n\u201cMargaret heard you humming it at Christmas,\u201d Rebecca continued. \u201cAfter that, she became afraid.\u201d
\n\u201cWhy?\u201d
\n\u201cBecause the melody was a code.\u201d
\nBefore I could ask what she meant, headlights appeared at the garage entrance.
\nA dark sedan raced down the ramp.
\nRebecca grabbed my arm.
\n\u201cGet in!\u201d
\nWe jumped into the SUV.
\nShe slammed the accelerator as the sedan came toward us.
\nA man leaned from its passenger window and fired.
\nThe rear windshield shattered.
\nI ducked as glass rained over the seats.
\nRebecca drove through the exit barrier and shot onto the street.
\nThe sedan followed.
\n\u201cWho are they?\u201d I shouted.
\n\u201cPeople Margaret has been paying for years.\u201d
\nShe swerved around a delivery truck.
\nAnother shot struck the side mirror.
\nPolice sirens screamed behind us, but I could not tell whether they were chasing us or the sedan.
\nRebecca turned sharply into an alley.
\nThe SUV scraped a brick wall, throwing sparks into the darkness.
\n\u201cWhere are we going?\u201d
\n\u201cTo the only person who can prove everything.\u201d
\n\u201cMy mother?\u201d
\n\u201cYes.\u201d
\n\u201cWhere is she?\u201d
\nRebecca hesitated.
\n\u201cBriarwood.\u201d
\nI knew the name.
\nIt was a private psychiatric hospital outside Dayton.
\nThe facility had closed twelve years earlier after allegations of patient abuse.
\n\u201cBriarwood is abandoned.\u201d
\n\u201cThe public building is.\u201d
\n\u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d
\n\u201cThere\u2019s another wing beneath it. Margaret used it to hide anyone who knew too much.\u201d
\nA bullet tore through the back door.
\nRebecca ducked but kept driving.
\nWe burst from the alley and crossed three lanes of traffic.
\nThe sedan tried to follow.
\nA bus struck its front end.
\nMetal exploded behind us as the sedan spun across the intersection.
\nRebecca did not slow down.
\nThirty minutes later, the city lights disappeared.
\nWe drove through dark fields and narrow country roads.
\nNeither of us spoke.
\nI kept thinking about thirteen years of marriage.
\nOur wedding.
\nThe house we bought.
\nThe nights she held me when my parents died.
\nThe mornings she kissed me before work.
\nI could no longer tell which moments had been real.
\nFinally, I asked, \u201cDid you ever love me?\u201d
\nRebecca gripped the steering wheel.
\n\u201cYes.\u201d
\n\u201cWas any part of our marriage honest?\u201d
\n\u201cMy love was.\u201d
\n\u201cYou searched my belongings.\u201d
\n\u201cYes.\u201d
\n\u201cYou reported information to Margaret.\u201d
\n\u201cYes.\u201d
\n\u201cYou knew my mother was alive.\u201d
\n\u201cNot until six months ago.\u201d
\n\u201cAnd you said nothing.\u201d
\n\u201cI was trying to find a way to get her out.\u201d
\n\u201cYou could have told me.\u201d
\n\u201cI was afraid you would confront Margaret and get yourself killed.\u201d
\n\u201cSo you kept lying.\u201d
\n\u201cYes.\u201d
\nHer voice broke.
\n\u201cAnd I will regret that for the rest of my life.\u201d
\nWe reached Briarwood shortly before midnight.
\nThe abandoned hospital stood behind a rusted fence.
\nBroken windows stared out from the crumbling brick walls.
\nRebecca parked near a collapsed maintenance shed and took a flashlight from the glove compartment.
\n\u201cThere\u2019s a tunnel beneath the boiler room.\u201d
\n\u201cHow do you know?\u201d
\n\u201cI followed Margaret here.\u201d
\nWe slipped through a gap in the fence.
\nThe grounds were silent except for the wind moving through dead weeds.
\nInside, the hospital smelled of mold and rain.
\nPaint peeled from the walls.
\nWheelchairs lay overturned in the corridor.
\nEvery shadow looked alive.
\nRebecca led me down two flights of stairs.
\nAt the bottom, she found a keypad hidden behind an electrical panel.
\nShe entered six numbers.
\nThe steel door unlocked.
\nBright white light spilled into the stairwell.
\nThe underground wing was not abandoned.
\nThe floors were clean.
\nSecurity cameras moved above us.
\nA ventilation system hummed behind the walls.
\nRebecca aimed her gun at the nearest camera and fired.
\nThe lens shattered.
\nAn alarm began sounding.
\n\u201cNow they know we\u2019re here,\u201d I said.
\n\u201cThey already knew.\u201d
\nWe hurried through a corridor lined with numbered doors.
\nSome had small observation windows.
\nI looked inside one.
\nThe room was empty except for a narrow bed and restraints fixed to the wall.
\n\u201cEmily is in Room 17,\u201d Rebecca said.
\nWe passed Room 12.
\nThen 13.
\nAt Room 14, a hand struck the glass from inside.
\nI nearly shouted.
\nAn elderly man pressed his face against the window.
\n\u201cHelp me,\u201d he mouthed.
\nRebecca stopped.
\n\u201cWe can\u2019t leave them.\u201d
\n\u201cWe won\u2019t. But we find Emily first.\u201d
\nAt Room 16, footsteps echoed behind us.
\nA security guard appeared at the end of the corridor.
\nRebecca raised her gun.
\nThe guard lifted both hands.
\n\u201cDon\u2019t shoot.\u201d
\nHe slowly removed his weapon and placed it on the floor.
\n\u201cWhich one of you is Nathan?\u201d
\n\u201cI am.\u201d
\nHis face filled with relief.
\n\u201cShe said you would come.\u201d
\n\u201cWho?\u201d
\n\u201cYour mother.\u201d
\nHe reached into his pocket and handed me a key card.
\n\u201cRoom 17.\u201d
\nRebecca studied him.
\n\u201cWhy are you helping us?\u201d
\n\u201cBecause I\u2019ve listened to that woman beg to see her son for eleven years.\u201d
\nI ran to the next door.
\nThe number 17 had been scratched away, but its outline remained.
\nMy hand shook as I pressed the card against the reader.
\nThe lock clicked.
\nInside, a thin woman sat on the edge of a bed.
\nHer hair was almost completely gray.
\nScars covered both wrists.
\nShe looked up at me.
\nHer eyes were my eyes.
\nShe stood slowly.
\n\u201cNathan?\u201d
\nHearing my name in her voice broke something inside me.
\nI stepped into the room.
\nShe reached for my face but stopped before touching me.
\n\u201cI thought I would die before I saw you again.\u201d
\n\u201cAre you Emily?\u201d
\nTears rolled down her cheeks.
\n\u201cI was.\u201d
\nI could not move.
\nFifteen years of lies stood between us.
\n\u201cRebecca said you\u2019re my mother.\u201d
\nEmily looked past me and saw Rebecca in the hallway.
\nFear twisted her face.
\n\u201cNo.\u201d
\nRebecca lowered her gun.
\n\u201cEmily, I\u2019m here to help.\u201d
\n\u201cStay away from my son.\u201d
\n\u201cI\u2019m not Margaret.\u201d
\n\u201cYou became exactly what she trained you to become.\u201d
\nEmily grabbed my hand.
\nHer fingers were cold and fragile.
\n\u201cWe have to leave before Mercer gets here.\u201d
\n\u201cMercer was shot.\u201d
\n\u201cHe\u2019ll survive. Men like him always do.\u201d
\n\u201cYou know him?\u201d
\n\u201cHe is the reason I have been trapped here.\u201d
\nI thought of Margaret\u2019s accusation.
\n\u201cHe helped kill Daniel?\u201d
\nEmily\u2019s eyes hardened.
\n\u201cThomas Mercer is Daniel Price.\u201d
\nThe corridor seemed to tilt.
\n\u201cMy father?\u201d
\n\u201cHe staged his own death and put another man in that car.\u201d
\nRebecca stared at her.
\n\u201cThat\u2019s impossible.\u201d
\n\u201cNo,\u201d Emily said. \u201cIt was the beginning of their plan.\u201d
\n\u201cOur plan?\u201d I asked.
\nEmily tightened her grip on my hand.
\n\u201cMargaret didn\u2019t steal you from me, Nathan.\u201d
\nShe glanced at the security camera above the door.
\n\u201cI gave you to her.\u201d
\nI pulled my hand away.
\n\u201cYou gave me to the woman who imprisoned you?\u201d
\n\u201cTo keep you safe from your father.\u201d
\nA heavy door slammed somewhere behind us.
\nVoices filled the corridor.
\nThe security guard grabbed his weapon.
\n\u201cThey\u2019re coming.\u201d
\nEmily rushed to a cabinet and removed an old cassette tape.
\nShe pressed it into my hands.
\n\u201cYour father recorded everything. Names, payments, hospitals, judges. This is what Margaret spent fifteen years trying to find.\u201d
\n\u201cI thought the evidence was inside the blue rabbit.\u201d
\n\u201cThe rabbit contains the key needed to unlock the recording.\u201d
\nA voice came through the building\u2019s speakers.
\n\u201cNathan.\u201d
\nIt was Mercer.
\nHe sounded weak but very much alive.
\n\u201cStep away from Emily.\u201d
\nRebecca looked toward the ceiling.
\n\u201cHow did he get here so fast?\u201d
\nEmily\u2019s face turned pale.
\n\u201cBecause he was never at the police station to investigate you.\u201d
\n\u201cThen why was he there?\u201d
\n\u201cTo lead you here.\u201d
\nThe locks on every door clicked open at once.
\nPatients began stumbling into the corridor.
\nAt the far end, Mercer appeared with his wounded arm in a sling and a gun in his other hand.
\nMargaret walked beside him, her injured wrist wrapped in a blood-soaked bandage.
\nThey were not enemies.
\nThey had never been enemies.
\nMercer smiled at Emily.
\n\u201cYou\u2019ve caused enough trouble.\u201d
\nI stepped between them.
\n\u201cYou\u2019re Daniel Price?\u201d
\nHis eyes moved to mine.
\n\u201cI was once.\u201d
\n\u201cYou\u2019re my father?\u201d
\n\u201cI am.\u201d
\n\u201cYou let me believe you were dead.\u201d
\n\u201cI did what was necessary.\u201d
\n\u201cYou locked my mother underground.\u201d
\n\u201cShe was unstable.\u201d
\nEmily screamed, \u201cHe ran the adoption network! Margaret only handled the records!\u201d
\nMercer\u2019s smile vanished.
\nMargaret lifted her uninjured hand, revealing a second pistol.
\n\u201cGive us the tape, Nathan.\u201d
\nRebecca raised her weapon.
\nThe security guard aimed at Mercer.
\nPatients scattered behind open doors.
\nFour guns pointed across the corridor.
\nI held the tape against my chest.
\nMercer looked directly into my eyes.
\n\u201cYou want the truth? Bring me the rabbit, and I\u2019ll give you every answer.\u201d
\nEmily shook her head desperately.
\n\u201cDon\u2019t believe him.\u201d
\nThen Mercer said the one thing none of us expected.
\n\u201cThe woman standing beside you is not Emily Carter.\u201d
\nI turned toward the woman who claimed to be my mother.
\nMercer reached into his coat and removed a recent photograph.
\nIt showed the real Emily Carter tied to a chair inside my own house.
\n\u201cShe is,\u201d Mercer said, pointing to the photograph, \u201cand unless you bring me that blue rabbit before sunrise, your real mother dies.\u201d…..<\/p>\n
PART 3: THE MOTHER WHO NEVER DIED Rebecca kept the gun aimed at Margaret. \u201cThere is one more truth you need to know about your mother,\u201d she whispered. Margaret\u2019s smile … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/realstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/realstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/realstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7486"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/realstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7495,"href":"https:\/\/realstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7486\/revisions\/7495"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/realstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realstoryus.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}