Chapter 9 - The Man Behind The Mask
Nathan did not speak for several minutes.
Nobody did.
Sometimes the truth does not create anger immediately.
Sometimes it creates emptiness.
Because your mind needs time to accept that everything you believed was wrong.
Nathan sat down.
“I don’t remember saying that.”
Mae looked at him.
“People remember what they want to remember.”
His eyes filled with shame.
“I was manipulated.”
I looked at him.
“Yes.”
“But you still chose.”
Those words hurt him.
Because they were true.
Nathan had not created the monster.
But he had opened the door for one.
Then his phone vibrated again.
A message.
From Doreen.
Nathan opened it.
His hands started shaking.
“What?”
I asked.
He showed us.
The message said:
YOU SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO ME.
THERE ARE CONSEQUENCES FOR BETRAYING FAMILY.
Simone whispered:
“She knows.”
Mae nodded.
“She knows Nathan changed sides.”
Nathan looked at the message.
Then suddenly stood.
“I need to stop her.”
I stared at him.
“How?”
He looked at me.
“By exposing everything.”
For the first time, I saw something different in his eyes.
Not fear.
Not obedience.
Determination.
But before we could make a plan, the hospital announcement system turned on.
A calm female voice echoed through the hallway.
“Attention.”
“Security alert.”
“Patient Leah Carver is requested to remain in her room.”
My heart dropped.
They were making it official.
They were turning me into the threat.
Mae grabbed my arm.
“They are moving faster.”
Nathan looked horrified.
“My mother is creating a public record.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means when the police arrive, they will already have a story.”
A story where I am unstable.
A story where I am dangerous.
A story where Doreen is protecting the baby.
I looked down at my son.
Then I looked at Nathan.
“What do we do?”
Nathan answered:
“We find Ethan.”
Everyone looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because Ethan is the reason my mother is doing this.”
He took out his phone.
“There is something she never knew.”
“What?”
“I kept the letter.”
The room became silent.
“The letter from Ethan.”
Nathan opened an encrypted folder.
Inside was a scanned document.
A handwritten letter.
The first sentence made Doreen’s entire plan collapse.
I KNOW WHAT MY MOTHER DID TWENTY YEARS AGO.
Mae stepped closer.
“Read it.”
Nathan started.
“Dear Nathan.”
“I do not know if you remember me.”
“But I remember you.”
“I remember the little boy who cried when I disappeared.”
Nathan stopped.
His hands trembled.
Then he continued.
“Your mother told everyone I was dead.”
“But I survived.”
“I spent twenty years trying to expose what she did.”
The room went silent.
Then Nathan reached the final paragraph.
The paragraph that changed everything.
“She did not lose one child.”
“She stole another.”
I looked at him.
“What does that mean?”
Nathan stared at the letter.
Then whispered:
“She took someone else’s baby.”
Before anyone could respond, the lights in the hallway turned off.
The emergency alarms started.
And from the darkness outside the door, a voice whispered:
“Leah.”
I froze.
Because I knew that voice.
It was Doreen.
May you like
And she said:
“You were never supposed to find out.”
