Chapter 4 - THE ROOM UNDER THE SHED
The police searched the area again.
This time, they looked deeper.
Martha remembered something.
“The shed floor.”
Everyone looked at her.
“What about it?” David asked.
“Three weeks ago, I noticed the wood was replaced.”
An officer walked closer.
The floorboards looked newer than the rest of the shed.
They removed them.
Underneath was a small metal door.
David felt his stomach tighten.
“What is that?”
Nobody answered.
The door was opened.
Inside was a hidden room.
A room nobody knew existed.
There were boxes.
Documents.
Photographs.
And dozens of names written on old papers.
The officer picked one up.
“Missing person reports.”
David looked closer.
His face changed.
Because one name was familiar.
“Blair Harper.”
His own daughter’s name.
Written on a document dated six months earlier.
David’s hands shook.
“No…”
Martha covered her mouth.
“Someone planned this.”
The officer continued searching.
Then he found a notebook.
The handwriting belonged to Claire.
David grabbed it.
“No.”
He opened the first page.
The words destroyed him.
“Phase one complete. David still trusts me.”
David stepped back.
The world around him felt unreal.
Claire had been planning something.
But what?
Then another page fell out.
A photograph.
A photograph of Blair.
Taken while she was sleeping.
On the back, there were six words.
May you like
Words that made David realize this was much bigger than he imagined.
“Her real father is coming soon.”
