Chapter 8 - MOTHER'S SECRET
I refused to believe it.
"Mom wouldn't."
Vanessa said nothing.
I opened another file.
It contained photographs.
Mom meeting strangers.
Mom entering a federal building.
Mom standing beside Victor Kane.
The dates were scattered over twenty years.
I felt sick.
"This could be fake."
"Maybe."
"You're not helping."
"Because I don't know what to believe anymore."
Then we heard footsteps.
Someone entered the house.
We hid.
A man's voice called:
"Michael?"
I recognized it.
Uncle Thomas.
I opened the door.
He was bleeding.
"Thomas!"
He collapsed against me.
Vanessa helped him inside.
"Where's Mom?" I asked.
"Taken."
"By Kane?"
Thomas shook his head.
"No."
"Then who?"
He looked at Vanessa.
"Your mother."
Silence.
"She's alive?"
"Yes."
"Where?"
Thomas closed his eyes.
"She took your father."
My heart stopped.
"Why?"
"Because she knows where the archive is."
I remembered the file.
D.R.
The betrayal.
But Thomas shook his head.
"Your mother isn't the traitor."
"Then what?"
"She was undercover."
I stared.
"Undercover for whom?"
"The government."
He explained that Diane Ross had been investigating Kane's organization for decades.
She married my father as part of the investigation.
But somewhere along the way, she fell in love with him.
She had planned to expose Kane.
Instead, Kane discovered her identity.
He threatened her children.
She disappeared from the investigation.
But she kept the archive hidden.
"Then why take Dad?"
Thomas said:
"Because your father knows the final location."
I thought about the tunnel.
The brass key.
The property.
Then I remembered something Dad had said.
Your grandfather didn't build this place just to store potatoes.
I looked at Vanessa.
"We have to go back."
"Back where?"
"The cellar."
We returned to the house.
The metal cage was still there.
Dad's blanket.
Mom's medication.
But the stone panel in the tunnel had changed.
Someone had opened it.
Beyond it was a massive underground chamber.
Shelves stretched into darkness.
Boxes covered every wall.
Thousands of files.
Hard drives.
Photographs.
Names.
The archive.
Vanessa whispered:
"Oh my God."
Then a voice came from the darkness.
"You finally found it."
We turned.
Mom stood there.
She held a gun.
Dad was beside her.
Neither looked frightened.
Mom looked at me.
"I'm sorry."
I stared.
"Sorry for what?"
She lowered the gun.
"For lying to you."
Dad stepped forward.
"We didn't know who we could trust."
I looked at both of them.
"Did you betray Dad?"
Mom shook her head.
"No."
"Then who did?"
She looked at Vanessa.
Then at me.
"The person who betrayed this family is standing right here."
Vanessa stepped backward.
May you like
Mom raised the gun.
And pointed it at her.
