Chapter 17
Room Seventeen
By morning, the rain had returned.
Not the violent storm that had torn through town days earlier, but a steady drizzle that covered everything in silver.
Ethan watched it through the windshield as they drove toward the hotel.
No one spoke.
His mother sat in the back seat.
Amara sat beside him.
The wooden box rested between them.
Inside it was the key.
The photograph.
The ledger.
And the three words that had changed everything.
HE IS ALIVE.
Ethan had barely slept.
Neither had Amara.
His mother had spent most of the night staring into the darkness, as though she were expecting someone to appear outside the cabin.
Ethan finally broke the silence.
"How do we know the message is real?"
His mother looked at him through the mirror.
"We don't."
"That'
