PART 7

Relief crashed through me.

“Where is Noah?”

“With me,” I said.

Silence.

Then:

“No. Sarah…”

Her voice broke.

“Noah cannot be with you.”

I looked at my nephew.

He was staring at me.

“What do you mean?”

Emily whispered:

“Because if Noah reached you, they already know where the evidence is.”

The call suddenly crackled.

A man’s voice shouted something in the background.

Emily gasped.

“Sarah, you have to leave the house!”

“We’re already underground.”

“Good.”

She breathed rapidly.

“Go to the lake house.”

“I don’t have a car.”

“Foster does.”

Mr. Foster looked at me.

Emily continued:

“Do not trust the police.”

“I know.”

“And don’t trust Mark.”

“I know.”

“But Sarah…”

She paused.

“Don’t trust the man who rescued you either.”

I looked at Mr. Foster.

He went completely still.

Then the call ended.

Nobody spoke.

Mr. Foster slowly reached for his phone.

“She shouldn’t have said that.”

I stepped backward.

“What does that mean?”

He looked at me.

“Sarah, there are things I haven’t told you.”

The boys moved behind me.

I held the blue envelope tighter.

“What things?”

Mr. Foster sighed.

Then he said something that made everything suddenly more complicated.

“I was the one who gave Emily the first warning about Mark.”

I stared at him.

“But I was also the person who told Mark where she was hiding.”

The room went silent.

Tyler whispered:

“Mom…”

Mr. Foster raised both hands.

“Wait.”

I stepped between him and the boys.

“Why would you do that?”

“Because I had no choice.”

“Everyone says that!”

His expression hardened.

“You think I’m working with Mark?”

“I don’t know what to think.”

He looked at the blue envelope.

“Open it.”

“Why?”

“Because your sister left something inside that will explain everything.”

I looked down at the envelope.

Then at Noah.

Then at Tyler.

Slowly, I tore it open.

Inside was a small brass key.

A memory card.

And one photograph.

I turned the photograph over.

Written on the back were five words:

The truth about Noah’s father.

My heart began pounding.

I inserted the memory card into my phone.

One video appeared.

The file was dated four days before Noah arrived at my house.

I pressed play.

Emily appeared on the screen.

Her face was bruised.

Her eyes were swollen from crying.

She looked directly into the camera.

“Sarah, if you are watching this…”

She took a trembling breath.

“…then you need to know the truth.”

The video suddenly froze.

Then the screen went black.

A message appeared:

FILE ENCRYPTED.

Below it was a password prompt.

Noah stepped forward.

“I know the password.”

I looked at him.

“You do?”

He nodded.

“Mommy taught me.”

“What is it?”

He whispered six words.

And when I heard them, I realized the secret Emily had been protecting wasn’t only about Mark.

It was about Noah himself.

The password was:

“Daddy is not my real father.”

PART 5

The words hung in the underground room like a sentence nobody wanted to say out loud.

“Daddy is not my real father.”

I stared at Noah.

He stared back at me.

There was no confusion in his face.

No hesitation.

He had heard those words before.

Many times.

“Who told you that?” I whispered.

“Mommy.”

“When?”

“Before she left.”

I looked at the phone.

The password box was still waiting.

With trembling fingers, I typed the words Noah had given me.

Daddy is not my real father.

The file unlocked.

The video started again.

CONTINUE FOR NEXT PART….