Chapter 4: The Woman Wearing My Wife’s Voice
“Dad! That’s not Mommy!””
Leo’s scream tore through the darkness.
David reacted without thinking. He snatched his son against his chest and swung his elbow backward, striking the person behind him. Someone grunted and stumbled into the steel door.
“Get away from my son!””
A flashlight clicked on.
The beam illuminated a man wearing black gloves and a dark jacket. He was taller than David, with a scar running from his left temple to the corner of his mouth. In his right hand, he held a small plastic bottle.
David recognized the smell immediately.
Chloroform.
The man smiled.
“Mr. Vance, you really should have listened to your sister.””
David shoved Leo behind him and lunged.
They crashed into the wall. The flashlight spun across the floor, throwing wild shadows over the concrete. David drove his fist into the man's ribs, but the stranger answered with a blow to David's jaw that sent him staggering.
“Run, Leo!”” David shouted.
His son didn't move.
He was staring at the stranger with the unmistakable terror of a child who had seen that face before.
The man grabbed David by the collar.
“Your boy has caused enough trouble.””
Before he could strike again, something smashed against the back of his head.
He dropped to his knees.
Rachel stood behind him, gripping a metal water bottle with both hands.
“Move!”” she yelled.
David seized Leo and dragged him toward the stairs.
Behind them, the stranger groaned and reached for his fallen flashlight.
Elena appeared at the bottom of the staircase, holding a second flashlight.
“David, stop! You can't take him!””
David stared at her.
“Watch me.””
“You don't understand! If you leave with Leo, they'll kill all of us!””
“Then perhaps you should have thought about that before locking my son underground.””
Elena's face twisted.
“I was trying to save you!””
“From what?””
She opened her mouth.
A gunshot exploded upstairs.
Elena screamed and dropped her flashlight.
David threw himself over Leo as the bullet struck the wooden staircase above them. Splinters rained down.
Someone shouted from the living room.
“Find the boy!””
David pulled Leo toward the opposite end of the chamber. The chained metal door stood open behind them, and beyond it, Rachel was struggling to hold the injured stranger down.
“There's another exit!”” Rachel shouted.
“Behind the storage shelves!””
David kicked aside a stack of plastic containers. Behind them was a narrow passage, barely wide enough for a man to squeeze through.
He pushed Leo inside.
“Keep crawling. Don't stop until I tell you.””
“Dad, come with me!””
“I'm right behind you.””
Leo grabbed his wrist.
“You promised you wouldn't leave me.””
The words nearly broke him.
David knelt and pressed his forehead against his son's.
“I am not leaving you again. Do you hear me? Not ever.””
Leo nodded, tears slipping down his cheeks.
David pushed him forward and followed.
The passage smelled of wet earth and old concrete. They crawled beneath exposed pipes until the tunnel opened into a cramped utility room. A metal ladder led to a ceiling hatch.
David boosted Leo onto the first rung.
“Climb.””
The boy hesitated.
“Is Mommy up there?””
David thought of the voice in the darkness.
He thought of the message warning him to ask Sarah about the hospital.
“I don't know, buddy.””
Leo's face crumpled.
“But she promised she'd come get me.””
David stopped climbing.
“What did you say?””
Leo looked down.
“Aunt Elena said Mommy would come. She said Mommy knew where I was.””
A cold pressure tightened around David's chest.
“How many times did she tell you that?””
“Lots.””
“Did you ever see your mother?””
Leo shook his head.
“No. But Aunt Elena played her voice on a little speaker. She said Mommy was too ashamed to come downstairs.””
David closed his eyes for one second.
Fourteen months.
His son had spent fourteen months believing his own mother had abandoned him.
“Leo, listen to me. Your mother loves you. Whatever happened, you were never the problem.””
“Then why didn't she come?””
David had no answer.
Above them, metal scraped against metal.
Someone was opening the hatch.
David shoved Leo behind a cabinet and raised the flashlight like a weapon.
A shadow appeared through the opening.
“David?””
The voice was unmistakable.
Sarah.
She climbed down the ladder, her hair disheveled and her face streaked with tears. When she saw Leo, she froze.
“Oh, my God.””
Leo stepped out from behind the cabinet.
For a moment, neither of them moved.
Then Sarah fell to her knees.
“Leo?””
The boy stared at her.
“Mommy?””
Sarah reached for him, but Leo retreated.
“You didn't come.””
Sarah's hand dropped.
“Baby, I didn't know.””
“You said you would come.””
“I never—”
“You promised!””
His voice cracked into a sob.
Sarah began crying.
David watched the scene, torn between the desperate need to believe his wife and the fear that she was part of the nightmare.
“How did you find us?”” he demanded.
Sarah looked at him.
“Elena called me.””
“When?””
“Ten minutes ago. She said the men had arrived and that you had found the room.””
David stepped closer.
“You knew there was a room?””
“No!””
“Leo says Elena told him you knew he was here.””
Sarah pressed a trembling hand over her mouth.
“She was lying to him.””
“Were you at the hospital the week before he disappeared?””
Sarah went completely still.
David saw the answer before she spoke.
“Yes.””
“What happened there?””
She looked toward Leo, then back at her husband.
“David, we need to get out of this house.””
“Not until you tell me the truth.””
Footsteps echoed through the passage behind them.
Sarah grabbed his arm.
“Please. There's no time.””
A man's voice rang out from the utility room.
“Found them!””
David shoved Sarah toward the ladder.
“Take Leo!””
She caught their son and lifted him upward.
David stayed behind, bracing himself against the narrow doorway.
The scarred man appeared, holding a pistol.
“Step away from the ladder.””
David raised his hands.
The stranger smiled at Sarah.
“Mrs. Vance. You should have stayed home.””
Sarah pulled Leo against her chest.
“Don't touch my son.””
The man laughed.
“Your son? That's an interesting way to describe him.””
David felt his stomach turn.
“What does that mean?””
The man pointed the gun at him.
“Ask your wife why she was at the hospital. Ask her why Elena was paid to take Leo. And then ask her whose child your boy really is.””
For a moment, the world stopped.
David looked at Sarah.
She was crying silently, her arms wrapped around Leo.
But she wasn't looking at David.
She was looking at the stranger with an expression of recognition.
May you like
And when the man lowered his gun and said, “Tell him, Sarah,” she whispered the words that shattered David's world.
“Leo isn't biologically yours.””
