The blue house looked smaller than Amanda remembered.
Perhaps it was because the years had changed her. Perhaps because she had spent so long carrying an image of it in her mind that the real building could never match it. The porch sagged slightly. The paint had faded. The upstairs window of the blue room was dark.
But the moment Amanda stepped through the front door, she knew something was different.
Someone had been there recently.
The air smelled faintly of dust and smoke.
Tyler stayed beside her.
Reyes checked the rooms.
Claire kept Lily close.
Evan stood near the entrance, watching the street.
Amanda walked toward the old hallway.
Her hand brushed the wall.
A memory surfaced.
Daniel standing there.
Frank beside him.
A boy crying behind a hidden door.
And Tyler's father saying, “If they find him, they'll use him against everyone.”
Amanda stopped.
“There.”
Tyler followed her gaze.
The old bookcase.
The same one where the wooden box had been hidden.
Amanda pulled it forward.
Behind it was a narrow seam in the wall.
Reyes crouched beside her.
“There was never supposed to be a door here.”
“There is now,” Amanda said.
She pressed the seam.
A section of wood released with a soft click.
A staircase descended into darkness.
Lily began shaking.
Claire held her tighter.
“I remember this,” Lily whispered.
Amanda looked back.
“You were here?”
Lily nodded.
“Once.”
Tyler switched on a flashlight.
They descended.
The staircase was narrow enough that they had to move one at a time.
At the bottom was a concrete room.
There were shelves along the walls.
Old files.
Photographs.
Medical records.
Fire reports.
Identity documents.
Dozens of them.
Amanda picked up the first folder.
Her own name was on it.
Inside was a photograph of her at twenty-six.
A note beneath it read:
PRIMARY WITNESS — MEMORY UNSTABLE.
Amanda's hands trembled.
Another file contained Tyler's name.
Another contained Lily's.
Another was marked FRANK DALTON.
And another:
DANIEL MORGAN.
Tyler stared at his father's file.
“What did he know?”
Amanda opened it.
Inside was a handwritten page.
She recognized Daniel's writing immediately.
THEY ARE NOT REPLACING PEOPLE.
THEY ARE REPLACING THE STORIES PEOPLE TELL ABOUT THEM.
Amanda read the sentence twice.
Reyes took the page.
“What does that mean?”
A voice came from the doorway.
“It means they don't need to change reality.”
Everyone turned.
Evan stood there.
He had blood on his sleeve.
“Evelyn got away,” he said.
Claire hurried toward him. “Are you hurt?”
“Not badly.”
Amanda looked at his face.
“Who was the woman?”
Evan hesitated.
“You already know.”
“No.”
“You've seen her before.”
Amanda felt a chill.
“The woman in the blue room.”
Evan nodded.
“She was the first person they made look like you.”
Tyler stared at him.
“Why Amanda?”
“Because Daniel trusted her.”
Amanda frowned.
“Trusted me?”
“He trusted the original witness.”
“Who was that?”
Evan looked toward Lily.
Lily whispered, “My mother.”
Claire closed her eyes.
Amanda finally understood.
The first witness had been Claire.
But Claire hadn't witnessed the warehouse fire.
She had witnessed what happened before it.
She had seen the operation.
She had seen the boy.
She had seen the people who created false identities.
And Daniel had hidden her.
“Then why did they target me?”
Evan answered.
“Because Claire disappeared.”
Amanda looked at Claire.
Claire's eyes filled with tears.
“I didn't disappear,” she whispered.
“I was taken.”
The room went silent.
Claire continued.
“They told me Lily was dead. They showed me photographs. Records. A death certificate. Everything.”
Amanda looked at Lily.
“But she wasn't.”
“No.”
Claire touched her daughter's hair.
“She was hidden.”
Tyler looked at the shelves.
“By Daniel?”
“By Daniel, Frank, your father, Reyes, and Evan.”
Amanda looked at Evan.
“And you?”
“I was the one who moved Lily.”
“Where?”
Evan pointed to the floor.
“Here.”
Amanda looked down.
“You hid her beneath this house?”
“Only for three nights.”
“Then what happened?”
Evan's face tightened.
“Someone betrayed us.”
Reyes looked at him.
“Who?”
Evan didn't answer.
Instead, he pulled a folded document from his jacket.
He handed it to Amanda.
It was an old transfer order.
The names were visible.
Daniel Morgan.
Frank Dalton.
Captain Javier Reyes.
Evan Dalton.
Claire Dalton.
At the bottom was a sixth signature.
Amanda stared at it.
She knew the handwriting.
She had seen it on her birthday card every year since she was a child.
Tyler looked over her shoulder.
His face drained of color.
“My mother.”
Amanda nodded slowly.
“Your mother signed the transfer.”
Tyler shook his head.
“She died eight years ago.”
“I know.”
“Then how—”
Amanda turned the page over.
There was another note on the back.
One sentence.
THE WOMAN WHO SIGNED THIS WAS NOT TYLER'S MOTHER.
The room seemed to contract around them.
Tyler backed away.
“Then who was she?”
Before anyone could answer, the lights went out.
Lily screamed.
A lock slammed somewhere above them.
Then the old house speakers crackled.
A woman's voice filled the hidden room.
Amanda's voice.
“You found the boy.”
Amanda froze.
The voice continued.
“Now find out what happened to him.”
Tyler grabbed Amanda's hand.
Reyes raised his weapon.
Evan turned toward the staircase.
And from somewhere behind the concrete wall came three slow knocks.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Everyone stared at the wall.
Amanda remembered the boy's voice from six years earlier.
Don't let them make me disappear.
She stepped forward.
The knocks came again.
This time, a child's voice whispered through the concrete.
“Amanda?”
Amanda's heart stopped.
It was a boy.
Older than Lily.
Alive.
And he knew her name.
PART 32 END
Click here to continue reading: PART 33: THE BOY BEHIND THE WALL:
I Arrived With Balloons and Cake, Expecting My Husband to Laugh—Instead His Entire Crew Went Silent When They Saw Me
Part 32 of 40
