Chapter 3 - THE FAMILY DOCTOR
Dr. Pierce advanced slowly.
Noah pushed Lily behind him.
“Stay away from us.”
Pierce looked tired.
Not angry.
That somehow made him more frightening.
“Noah, listen to me.”
“You kept my mother locked in a wall.”
“It’s more complicated than that.”
“You told us she was dead!”
“I told you what your father instructed me to tell you.”
Noah felt as if the floor moved beneath him.
“My father?”
Pierce hesitated.
That was enough.
Noah’s stomach twisted.
“You’re lying.”
“I wish I were.”
Behind the steel door, their mother began hitting something.
“Don’t listen to him!”
Pierce flinched.
“Evelyn, stop.”
“GET AWAY FROM MY CHILDREN!”
Lily started crying.
Noah grabbed a metal tray from the cart.
Pierce raised the syringe.
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“You already did.”
“Noah—”
He threw the tray.
Pierce ducked.
Noah grabbed Lily and ran.
They sprinted into another passage.
Pierce chased them.
“Stop! You don’t understand what’s happening!”
Noah saw a small wooden door.
He kicked it open.
They tumbled into a storage room full of furniture covered in sheets.
Lily slammed the door.
No lock.
Noah shoved a cabinet against it.
Pierce hit the other side.
“You cannot leave this house!”
Lily whispered, “Why?”
Pierce stopped pounding.
For several seconds, there was silence.
Then his voice came through the wood.
“Because Vanessa isn’t the one you should be afraid of.”
Noah stared at Lily.
“What does that mean?”
No answer.
Then Pierce’s footsteps faded away.
Lily wiped her face.
“I want Dad.”
Noah didn’t.
Not anymore.
His father, David Bennett, had ignored every call.
Every message.
Every warning.
For nearly a year, David spent more nights at company offices and hotels than at home.
Noah used to believe Vanessa was pushing him away.
Now he remembered something worse.
The night of the fire.
His father had arrived before the firefighters.
He hadn’t looked shocked.
He had looked prepared.
“Noah?”
He shook himself.
“Come on.”
They searched the storage room.
Inside an old filing cabinet, Noah found boxes filled with medical folders.
Names.
Dates.
Photos.
Not just their mother.
Dozens of people.
Every file had the same symbol stamped on the corner.
A black circle with a white line through it.
Lily held up one folder.
“This one has Dad’s company name.”
Noah took it.
BENNETT FOUNDATION — PRIVATE CARE PROGRAM.
He opened it.
Page after page described patients transferred from public hospitals into private facilities.
Most records ended with the same phrase.
Family notified of death.
But attached photographs showed those people alive weeks later.
Noah’s hands went cold.
“This isn’t just Mom.”
A crash sounded behind them.
The door flew open.
Vanessa stood there.
Her robe was torn.
Blood ran from the bite on her hand.
She held a pistol.
“Give me the files.”
Noah backed away.
“You’re kidnapping people.”
Vanessa laughed once.
“You still think I’m in charge?”
Then a deep male voice came from behind her.
“Vanessa.”
She went pale.
Noah knew that voice.
His father stepped into the room.
David Bennett looked at his children.
Then at the pistol.
“Put the gun down.”
Noah almost cried with relief.
“Dad!”
But David never looked at him.
His eyes remained fixed on Vanessa.
“What did they find?”
May you like
And Noah understood.
His father wasn’t there to save them.
