Chapter 3 - Victoria Vale
Julian stared at his wife as though the woman standing beside him had become a stranger.
“Who is Mrs. Vale?”
Victoria didn’t answer.
The boy below called again.
“Mrs. Vale?”
I shifted Chloe into one arm and started down the stairs.
Julian followed.
Victoria shouted:
“Margaret, don’t!”
That only made me go faster.
At the bottom was a narrow concrete corridor.
No torture chamber.
No cages.
That would have been easier to understand.
Instead, there were small bedrooms.
Children’s blankets.
Books.
Cereal boxes.
A tiny bathroom.
Someone had created a hidden living space beneath the funeral parlor.
Five children stood behind a half-open metal door.
A boy around nine.
Two girls perhaps seven and eight.
A toddler.
And another boy holding the toddler’s hand.
All alive.
All frightened.
The oldest boy looked at Victoria.
“You said Chloe wasn’t coming back.”
Julian nearly collapsed.
I held Chloe tighter.
“What did she tell you?”
“That Chloe was sick.”
He glanced toward her.
“That she had to go away like Emma.”
I froze.
“Who is Emma?”
No one answered.
Then Chloe whispered:
“My sister.”
Julian’s face emptied.
He looked at me.
Then at Victoria.
“Chloe doesn’t have a sister.”
Victoria sat slowly on the bottom stair.
“Yes, she does.”
The silence became unbearable.
Julian whispered:
“What?”
Victoria looked at him.
“Her name was Emma.”
“Was?”
“She died.”
“When?”
“Before Chloe was born.”
Julian laughed once, but there was nothing sane about the sound.
“I’ve been married to you for nine years.”
“Yes.”
“We had no child before Chloe.”
“You didn’t.”
That single sentence changed everything.
Julian stared.
Victoria continued.
Emma had been hers.
Not his.
A daughter born when Victoria was nineteen.
Different name.
Different city.
Different father.
Emma disappeared at six years old.
Victoria spent years searching.
Then Raymond Mercer approached her.
Julian’s father.
He claimed he knew what happened.
He offered information.
But only if Victoria married into the Mercer family.
Julian whispered:
“My father arranged our marriage?”
“Not directly.”
“You met me at his foundation dinner.”
“Because he put me there.”
My stomach turned.
Julian had always described their meeting as fate.
Now it was recruitment.
“What did Raymond know about Emma?”
Victoria looked toward the children.
“He knew she wasn’t the only one.”
The oldest boy stepped forward.
“My mom said Mr. Mercer took kids who remembered things.”
Julian’s face changed.
“What things?”
The boy pointed toward Chloe.
“Things adults needed forgotten.”
Then Chloe lifted her head from my shoulder.
“Grandma?”
“Yes?”
“Emma isn’t dead.”
Victoria stopped breathing.
May you like
Chloe pointed toward a locked door at the end of the corridor.
“She talks to me through there.”
