Chapter 37 - The Sixth Name
The sixth name was written in red.
Underneath the message:
HE'S ALREADY WITH YOU.
I stared at the screen.
“No.”
Evan looked over.
“What is it?”
I showed him.
His expression hardened.
The investigator took my phone.
“Everybody stay together.”
Rachel pulled Lucas and Daniel into the police vehicle.
Diane climbed in after them.
Anna remained beside me.
Rebecca stood several yards away, staring at the house.
“What are you looking at?” I asked.
“The upstairs window.”
I followed her gaze.
A curtain moved.
Someone was standing behind it.
A man.
Tall.
Still.
Watching us.
Then he disappeared.
The investigator shouted to his officers.
“House!”
They rushed inside.
Rebecca grabbed my wrist.
“That's not Jonathan.”
“Who is it?”
“I don't know.”
Arthur was being loaded into an ambulance.
He caught my eye.
“Natalie.”
I ran to him.
“Who is the sixth?”
He looked terrified.
“I don't know.”
“You built the archive.”
“I didn't build all of it.”
“What do you mean?”
“I inherited it.”
“From Elias?”
“No.”
His breathing became shallow.
“From someone before him.”
I leaned closer.
“Who?”
Arthur's eyes closed.
“The first trustee.”
“What's his name?”
He whispered:
“Samuel.”
I froze.
“What?”
He opened his eyes.
“Not your Samuel.”
Then the ambulance doors closed.
I stood there.
Anna came beside me.
“We need to leave.”
“No.”
She stared.
“What?”
“We need to find the sixth.”
“Why?”
“Because someone is giving us names.”
Evan joined us.
“And they know who's around us.”
The investigator approached.
“We've got a problem.”
“What?”
He showed us a body-camera recording.
One of the officers had found a hidden room.
Inside was a wall of surveillance monitors.
Every camera was live.
Our faces were on the screens.
Mine.
Evan's.
Anna's.
Samuel's.
Lucas's.
Daniel's.
Diane's.
Rebecca's.
Even Victor.
The investigator looked at me.
“Someone has been tracking you for a long time.”
“Who?”
“We don't know.”
I stepped toward the screen.
One camera showed our current location.
Another showed the hospital.
Another showed my old apartment.
Another showed a street I hadn't visited in years.
Then I noticed something.
A child's bedroom.
Blue walls.
A stuffed bear.
A wooden train.
I recognized it.
It was Lucas's room.
“How did they get that?”
Lucas approached.
He went pale.
“That wasn't my room.”
“What?”
“I slept somewhere else.”
“When?”
“When I was little.”
He pointed.
“That room belonged to Daniel.”
Daniel looked at him.
“You're sure?”
“Yes.”
The investigator looked unsettled.
“Why would someone film a room from twelve years ago?”
Lucas whispered:
“Because they weren't watching us.”
He stared at the monitor.
“They were watching the children.”
I remembered the fifth photograph.
Five children.
Not four.
The sixth wasn't one of us.
The sixth was whoever controlled the children.
A new message arrived.
FIND THE ROOM WITH NO WINDOW.
We searched the house.
Every bedroom had a window.
Every office.
Every storage room.
Then Anna stopped.
“The basement.”
We returned underground.
Behind the laundry area was an old brick wall.
The investigator scanned it.
“There is a hollow space.”
Arthur had been right.
The old house had more rooms than any blueprint showed.
We found a narrow opening.
Inside was a tiny chamber.
No window.
No bed.
Just a chair and a cassette recorder.
Beside it lay six envelopes.
The first five were labeled with our names.
The sixth was blank.
I picked up the recorder.
A voice spoke.
“Number one.”
Click.
“Natalie Brooks.”
A second voice.
“Removed.”
Click.
“Evan Brooks.”
“Retained.”
Click.
“Samuel Brooks.”
“Retained.”
Click.
“Anna Brooks.”
“Transferred.”
Click.
“Lucas and Daniel.”
“Separated.”
My stomach turned.
Then the voice said:
“Sixth.”
Silence.
The recording stopped.
“What does ‘transferred’ mean?” Anna asked.
“I don't know.”
“You know more than you're saying.”
I looked at her.
“I swear I don't.”
Rachel stepped into the room.
“There is another tape.”
She held up a cassette labeled:
MOTHER.
We all went still.
I put it into the recorder.
Static.
Then a woman's voice.
Evelyn.
“My children.”
I began crying before she'd even said my name.
“If you're hearing this, then someone has finally opened the archive.”
A pause.
“I need you to understand something.”
Her voice trembled.
“Jonathan was never the biggest threat.”
I looked at Rebecca.
She closed her eyes.
Evelyn continued.
“The trust was designed to survive every generation.”
“Every death.”
“Every betrayal.”
“But there was one clause nobody remembered.”
Paper rustled.
“The sixth name.”
The investigator leaned closer.
“Who is it?”
Evelyn answered.
“My husband.”
I froze.
“Your husband?” Anna whispered.
Evelyn's voice continued.
“The sixth isn't another child.”
“He's the person married to the rightful heir.”
Evan looked at me.
“What?”
Evelyn continued.
“When Natalie reaches adulthood, the trust will recognize her husband as the sixth controlling beneficiary.”
My stomach dropped.
I looked at Evan.
He looked horrified.
“We're not married.”
“No,” Anna said.
“But she may be talking about someone else.”
The recording continued.
“Jonathan wanted Natalie to marry within the family.”
I stared.
“Why?”
“To keep the trust under Brooks control.”
“And if she refused?”
“Then the sixth beneficiary would be selected by the trustee.”
The tape clicked.
The final words came quietly.
“I never trusted Richard.”
“I never trusted Arthur.”
“And I never trusted Jonathan.”
A pause.
“But I did trust David.”
Diane began sobbing.
Evelyn said one last thing.
“David was the only person who tried to get me out.”
The tape ended.
I turned toward Diane.
She was crying silently.
“You never knew.”
She shook her head.
“I thought he was protecting you.”
“He was.”
“Then why did he die?”
No one answered.
Another message appeared on my phone.
YOU'RE LOOKING AT THE WRONG MAN.
Then:
LOOK AT EVAN.
I froze.
Evan looked at me.
“Natalie?”
I couldn't move.
“You're the sixth?”
“No.”
“You were adopted into the Brooks family.”
He shook his head.
“My father adopted you.”
“Why?”
“I don't know.”
“What did Jonathan want from you?”
“I don't know.”
Then the investigator picked up the blank envelope.
He opened it.
Inside was one sheet of paper.
EVAN BROOKS — SIXTH BENEFICIARY.
Beneath it:
STATUS: ACTIVE.
Evan stared.
“I didn't know.”
I believed him.
That was the worst part.
May you like
Because someone else knew.
And someone had just activated his name.
