Chapter 10 - The Door Behind the Door
My mother had been dead for twenty-eight years.
At least, that was what the official record said.
The woman on the hospital screen looked exactly like the woman who had tucked me into bed when I was seven.
Exactly like the woman who had kissed my forehead before my first deployment.
Exactly like the woman whose funeral I had attended when I was twenty-four.
I couldn't move.
Emily stared at the screen.
“Mom…”
My mother's voice came through the speakers.
“You're finally asking the right questions.”
Reyes turned toward the control panel.
“Find the source.”
An agent rushed out.
The screen changed.
My mother's face remained.
“You always were stubborn, Victoria.”
My throat tightened.
“Where are you?”
“Where your father left me.”
“You said he was dead.”
“He isn't.”
Another shock.
“You're lying.”
“I wish I were.”
My mother's eyes filled with tears.
“You don't know what they did to our family.”
I stepped closer to the screen.
“What happened in 1989?”
She looked away.
“Your father discovered a program that used military families as cover for experimental identity operations.”
Sarah stood silently behind us.
My stomach twisted.
“What kind of operations?”
“People were trained to become other people.”
“Why?”
“To infiltrate organizations.”
“Governments?”
“Yes.”
“Military?”
“Yes.”
“Families?”
She looked straight at me.
“Yes.”
The hospital lights flickered.
My mother continued.
“Your father tried to expose them.”
“What happened?”
“They took him.”
“And me?”
“They changed your life.”
I stared.
“How?”
“They altered your records.”
“Who?”
My mother hesitated.
“The people you trusted.”
General Vale's face entered my mind.
“But why me?”
“Because your psychological profile made you ideal.”
“For what?”
“To command.”
I didn't understand.
My mother whispered:
“You were never supposed to be a colonel.”
The room fell silent.
“You were supposed to be a doorway.”
I shook my head.
“That doesn't mean anything.”
“It will.”
A door behind the hospital screen opened.
My mother stepped through.
Another room.
Another camera.
She walked slowly.
“I need you to understand one thing.”
“What?”
“David didn't die.”
I closed my eyes.
“He was taken.”
“Where?”
“He's here.”
My heart slammed against my ribs.
“Where?”
She smiled sadly.
“Beneath the Prescott estate.”
I looked at Reyes.
He understood immediately.
“We searched the blue room.”
“Not deep enough,” my mother said.
“What's beneath it?”
“A second facility.”
Reyes ordered his team to move.
I grabbed Sarah's arm.
“You're coming with us.”
She nodded.
“I know the way.”
We returned to the Prescott estate before dawn.
The house was empty.
Margaret's body had been removed.
Brandon was under federal guard.
Ethan was fighting for his life.
Vale was in custody.
And my mother was somewhere underground.
Sarah led us to the blue room.
She touched the wall.
“There.”
A hidden latch clicked.
A floor panel opened.
Stairs descended into darkness.
We went down.
The deeper we traveled, the colder it became.
Then we reached a steel door.
Sarah entered a code.
It opened.
Beyond it was a facility.
Computers.
Cameras.
Medical equipment.
Rows of files.
And photographs.
Hundreds of photographs.
People.
Military personnel.
Politicians.
Judges.
Police officers.
Journalists.
Spouses.
Children.
I stopped at one wall.
My own photograph was there.
Taken when I was twenty-six.
Beside it was another photograph.
Sarah.
Then another.
A woman who looked like me.
Another.
Another.
I felt sick.
“How many?”
Sarah answered.
“Seven.”
“Seven what?”
“Versions of you.”
I turned.
“What?”
She pointed to the photographs.
“You are not the first.”
My mother came through a speaker.
“You were the only one who survived.”
My chest tightened.
“What does that mean?”
Sarah looked at me.
“The others didn't make it.”
I stared at the photographs.
“Who was number seven?”
Sarah didn't answer.
“Who?”
She finally pointed to a monitor.
A live feed appeared.
A man sat inside a concrete room.
Older.
Gray hair.
Thin face.
My heart stopped.
David.
Alive.
He lifted his head.
He looked directly into the camera.
“Victoria.”
I couldn't breathe.
He raised one hand.
There was blood on his wrist.
Then he said the words that changed everything.
“Don't trust your daughter.”
Emily stepped forward.
“No.”
I turned toward her.
She was crying.
“Mom, he's not talking about me.”
David's face on the monitor hardened.
“She doesn't know.”
Emily shook her head.
“I don't know what?”
The screen went black.
Then another message appeared.
THREE HOURS UNTIL EXTRACTION.
Reyes looked at me.
“Extraction of who?”
Sarah turned pale.
“Everyone.”
“What does that mean?”
She pointed toward another monitor.
It showed a list.
Victoria Hart.
Emily Prescott.
David Hart.
Sarah Monroe.
General Thomas Vale.
Marisol Vega.
Ethan Prescott.
Brandon Prescott.
All marked with the same status.
ACTIVE TARGET.
I stared at the screen.
“Who issued the order?”
The system displayed one name.
A name I knew.
A name that made the room seem to disappear.
Colonel Victoria Hart.
I turned slowly.
“No.”
Reyes stepped toward the computer.
“That's impossible.”
Sarah whispered:
“They're using your credentials.”
The lights went out.
Then a final message appeared on the screen.
WELCOME HOME, VICTORIA.
And from somewhere beneath our feet, a man's voice shouted:
“Open the door before they kill your mother.”
I froze.
Because I knew that voice.
My father.
And this time, he was not a recording.
May you like
He was alive.
Title: My Beaten Daughter Hid a Memory Card—Then I Discovered My Dead Husband Was Still Alive and Watching Us
