Chapter 4 - THE SON AARON NEVER KNEW
Three days later, the DNA results arrived.
Peter sat in Detective Harper’s office.
The envelope was on the desk.
Untouched.
Neither of them wanted to open it.
Because sometimes…
the truth hurts more than the lie.
Harper looked at him.
“You ready?”
Peter stared at the envelope.
“No.”
A pause.
“But open it anyway.”
The paper was removed.
Harper read silently.
Then looked up.
Her expression changed.
Peter immediately knew.
“What?”
She didn’t answer.
“Detective.”
She slowly placed the paper down.
“Drew is Aaron’s son.”
Peter exhaled.
A wave of relief.
Then confusion.
“Then why would Reena say that?”
Harper looked at him.
“Because she needed you to doubt everything.”
Peter realized something.
Reena’s greatest weapon was never the locked room.
It was confusion.
She made everyone question reality.
Aaron.
The children.
Peter.
Everyone.
Later that day, Peter visited Drew.
The boy was drawing.
A house.
Three people.
And one person outside.
Peter looked at the picture.
“Who is that?”
Drew stopped drawing.
“That’s Dad.”
Peter looked closer.
The person outside the house.
“Why is he outside?”
Drew whispered:
“Because he couldn’t get in.”
Peter’s heart broke.
“What do you mean?”
Drew looked at him.
“Dad tried to open the basement door.”
Peter froze.
“What?”
Drew looked scared.
“He heard us crying.”
Peter sat down.
“Drew…”
The boy’s voice became smaller.
“Dad said he was going to take us away.”
A pause.
“But then Reena told him…”
“What?”
Drew swallowed.
“She said if he left her, she would make everyone think he was crazy.”
Peter’s blood ran cold.
Aaron had known.
He had tried.
But Reena had controlled the story.
And then Aaron died.
Leaving his children trapped with the person who destroyed him.
That evening, Peter returned home.
He found an envelope under his door.
No name.
No address.
Only one sentence:
“You think you saved the children. You only opened the door.”
Inside was a photograph.
A photograph of Aaron.
Taken the day before he died.
Standing beside someone.
Someone Peter recognized.
Someone impossible.
Because the person beside Aaron…
was the same person Reena claimed had never existed.
Peter stared at the picture.
His hands went cold.
May you like
Because the punishment room was not Reena’s only secret.
It was just the beginning.
