Chapter 5 - THE WOMAN IN RED
Emergency lights flickered back on.
Lily grabbed Noah.
“Who was that?”
David looked terrified.
Noah had never seen his father afraid of anyone.
Vanessa whispered, “She found us.”
“Who?” Noah demanded.
David ignored him.
He opened a hidden panel behind the shelves and pulled out a black case.
Inside were cash, passports, and two handguns.
Vanessa stared.
“You were planning to leave?”
“If she’s inside the house, we have minutes.”
“Who is she?” Noah shouted.
David turned.
“Your grandmother.”
Noah blinked.
“My grandmother is dead.”
“So was your mother,” Vanessa muttered.
David shot her a look.
Noah’s mind raced.
His maternal grandmother, Margaret Vale, supposedly died when Noah was five.
Car accident.
No body shown.
Another closed coffin.
“Oh my God.”
The pattern hit him.
“Was Grandma alive too?”
David didn’t answer.
Lily whispered, “How many dead people are living in our walls?”
A gunshot echoed downstairs.
Everyone jumped.
David grabbed Lily.
Noah shoved him away.
“Don’t touch her.”
“I’m trying to get you out.”
“Why should we trust you?”
“Because whatever I did, I’m still your father.”
“No.”
Noah stared into his eyes.
“A father doesn’t bury his wife alive.”
David looked away.
Another gunshot.
Then screaming.
Vanessa moved to the window.
Three black SUVs had entered the estate.
Men and women in dark clothing moved across the lawn.
At their center walked an older woman wearing a red coat.
Noah recognized her from old photographs.
Margaret Vale.
His grandmother.
Alive.
She looked up at the window.
Directly at him.
Then she raised a hand.
Not waving.
Warning.
David grabbed Noah.
“We’re leaving.”
“No.”
“You don’t know Margaret.”
“She’s our grandmother.”
“She’s the reason this began!”
Downstairs, glass shattered.
David pulled the children toward a second hidden door.
Vanessa followed.
They ran through narrow passages toward the garage.
Halfway there, Lily stopped.
“Mom.”
Noah turned.
“We can’t leave Mom.”
David snapped, “Evelyn is with Pierce.”
“That’s not helping your argument!”
Noah pulled free.
David blocked him.
“You go back there, you die.”
“Then come with me.”
David stared at his son.
For one long moment, Noah thought he might.
Then David whispered, “I can’t.”
That hurt worse than anything.
Noah nodded.
“Then I’m done asking.”
He took Lily’s hand and ran back toward the lower ward.
David called after them.
“Noah!”
A woman stepped from the darkness between them.
Red coat.
Silver hair.
Margaret Vale.
She pointed a pistol at David’s chest.
“Let them go.”
David stopped.
Noah stared at the grandmother he thought was dead.
Margaret looked at him.
“You have your mother’s eyes.”
“Where is she?”
Margaret’s face changed.
“She’s alive.”
May you like
Noah exhaled.
Then Margaret added, “But if we don’t reach her in the next ten minutes, she won’t stay that way.”
