Chapter 6 - The Secret Daniel Built Around Me
The door locked from the outside.
I heard the click.
One small sound.
But it felt louder than anything I had ever heard.
I ran toward it.
"Daniel!"
I grabbed the handle and pulled.
Nothing.
Locked.
I pulled again.
Still nothing.
Behind me, Olivia stood frozen.
Her face was pale.
Not because we were trapped.
Because she knew what came next.
"How long have you known about this room?"
I turned toward her.
She looked down.
"Since before your wedding."
My heart dropped.
Before my wedding.
The words repeated in my head.
"Olivia, what are you saying?"
She walked toward the table covered with files.
Her fingers touched the folders carefully.
Like she was afraid of the memories inside them.
"I started investigating Daniel five years ago."
"Five years?"
She nodded.
"Six months before you married him."
I stared at her.
"Why didn't you tell me?"
A painful expression crossed her face.
"Because I tried."
The room became silent.
"What?"
"I tried to tell you."
She opened one of the drawers.
Inside were dozens of printed emails.
Messages.
Photos.
"I called you."
She looked at me.
"More than twenty times."
I shook my head.
"I never received them."
"I know."
She picked up a phone.
Not mine.
An old one.
"Because Daniel blocked them."
My stomach turned.
"No."
Olivia looked at me.
"Emily, he didn't just control what happened after you married him."
She held up the phone.
"He controlled what you saw before."
I took a step back.
Everything suddenly connected.
The missed calls.
The arguments.
The moments Daniel told me Olivia was "too dramatic."
The times he said my sister was trying to ruin our marriage.
He had been separating us.
Slowly.
Quietly.
For years.
"Why?"
My voice broke.
"Why would he do this?"
Olivia looked at my belly.
And for a moment, she looked afraid.
"Because of your baby."
I closed my eyes.
"Everyone keeps saying that."
"Because it's true."
I looked at her.
"What does my baby have to do with Daniel?"
She walked toward the largest file on the table.
The label made my blood run cold.
"PROJECT EMILY."
I stared at it.
My name.
Not my married name.
My real name.
Emily Carter.
I opened the folder.
Inside were pages of information.
My childhood.
My school records.
My medical history.
My family.
Even photographs I had never seen.
One photo showed me at sixteen years old.
Another showed my parents.
Another showed Olivia and me standing outside our old house.
But then I saw something that made my hands shake.
A document.
A legal agreement.
At the top was a title.
"Family Lineage Confirmation."
I didn't understand.
I read the first paragraph.
Then the second.
Then I stopped.
"No."
Olivia watched me.
"You found it."
I looked at her.
"What is this?"
She didn't answer.
I held the paper tighter.
"Olivia."
Her eyes filled with tears.
"Emily, Daniel didn't choose you because he loved you."
My chest tightened.
"He chose you because of who your family is."
I stared at the document again.
There were names.
Old names.
People I didn't recognize.
Then one name caught my attention.
My mother's maiden name.
I looked up.
"What does my mother have to do with this?"
Olivia took a deep breath.
"Everything."
A loud noise interrupted us.
The security camera in the corner moved.
We both looked up.
The small red light turned on.
Someone was watching.
Daniel.
Olivia immediately stepped back.
"He heard us."
I grabbed the phone.
The screen lit up.
A message appeared.
From Daniel.
"I wanted you to find the truth eventually."
Another message followed.
"But not from Olivia."
My hands went cold.
Then the final message appeared.
"She never told you what happened to your mother."
I looked at Olivia.
Her face changed.
Not fear.
Guilt.
"Olivia..."
She looked away.
"What is he talking about?"
She didn't answer.
"Olivia."
Still nothing.
Then she whispered:
"Your mother didn't disappear."
My breathing stopped.
"What?"
She looked at me.
And I saw something I had never seen before.
Fear.
Real fear.
"She was hiding from Daniel's father."
The room felt smaller.
The walls felt closer.
"What does that mean?"
Before Olivia could answer, the lights turned off.
The security camera stopped moving.
Then a sound came from the wall behind us.
A voice.
Not through a speaker.
Not through the phone.
A real voice.
"Emily."
I froze.
Because I knew that voice.
I had heard it in old memories.
In childhood videos.
In dreams.
A voice I thought I would never hear again.
Olivia covered her mouth.
"No..."
The voice came again.
"Emily, if you can hear me..."
My entire body went numb.
"Your mother is still alive."
I couldn't move.
I couldn't speak.
Because my mother had been dead for fifteen years.
At least, that's what everyone told me.
May you like
Then the hidden wall panel slowly opened...
And behind it was a woman holding a photograph of me as a baby.
