Chapter 7 — The Price of a Memory
Chapter 7 — The Price of a Memory
Grace grabbed Nathan’s shirt.
“We have to find her.”
“We will.”
“She was taken because we came here!”
“And if we leave without the footage, we may never prove who Nicholas is.”
“I don’t care about proof!”
“You will when he has you arrested for kidnapping your own husband.”
Grace released him.
Nathan’s words were cruel, but true.
He opened the first cabinet.
Inside were hundreds of video tapes labeled with names and dates.
Grace found her own name.
GRACE MILLER — SESSION 01
Her maiden name.
Nathan inserted the tape into an old player.
The screen showed seventeen-year-old Grace sitting in a white clinic room. Dr. Shaw stood beside her.
“You saw Nathan Cole lock the door,” Shaw said.
Young Grace shook her head.
“No. Nicholas had the gas can.”
Shaw injected something into Grace’s arm.
“Let’s try again.”
The video cut.
In the next recording, Grace looked weaker.
Shaw repeated the question.
Young Grace whispered, “Nathan locked the door.”
Grace covered her mouth.
Nathan stared at the screen.
“They made you believe it.”
Another voice spoke behind them.
“No. They made her uncertain.”
Nicholas stood at the bottom of the stairs holding a gun.
Two armed men flanked him.
Grace turned.
“Where is my mother?”
“Alive.”
“What do you want?”
“The master archive.”
Nathan stepped between them.
“You don’t know where it is.”
Nicholas smiled.
“But Grace does.”
“I don’t.”
“You will.”
Nicholas ordered his men to restrain Nathan.
Grace raised her phone.
“I uploaded everything.”
Nicholas laughed.
“To whom?”
Grace said nothing.
His smile faded.
One of the guards seized her phone and checked it.
“No signal down here.”
Nicholas approached Grace.
“You have always tried to be brave at the wrong moment.”
He placed a small black vial on the table.
Nathan struggled against the guards.
“Don’t touch her.”
Nicholas poured the liquid onto a cloth.
Grace backed away.
“What does it do?”
“It opens the door between fear and memory.”
He pressed the cloth over her mouth.
Grace fought, but the room began to blur.
Nicholas’s voice followed her into the darkness.
“Tell me where your father hid the master archive.”
Grace woke inside the burning lake house.
She was seventeen again.
Smoke filled the hallway.
Alexander Cole screamed behind a locked door.
Two identical brothers stood before her.
One held a gas can.
The other held the key.
May you like
Grace finally saw their faces.
And realized both brothers had lied.
