Chapter 9: The Photograph
495 Words
Maya stood frozen.
The photograph trembled between her fingers.
Her father was alive in it.
Alive three days after the date everyone had told her he died.
“No…” she whispered.
Adrian took the photograph from her.
His eyes moved over it again and again, as though staring at it long enough might somehow change what he was seeing.
“This can’t be real.”
Maya looked at him.
“That’s my father.”
“I know.”
“He was alive.”
Adrian didn’t answer.
“He was alive, Adrian!”
Her voice broke.
For eight years, Maya had believed she had buried the last piece of her family.
Now, in one photograph, everything she knew had been ripped apart.
“Why didn’t he come home?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then find out!”
Adrian looked at her.
“I will.”
“No.” Maya shook her head. “I want the truth too.”
A sound came from the hallway.
Both of them turned.
Footsteps.
Someone was approaching.
Adrian immediately pulled Maya behind him.
“Stay here.”
“Adrian—”
“Please.”
It was the first time she’d heard fear in his voice.
The footsteps stopped outside the door.
Then a man’s voice came through the darkness.
“Adrian?”
Adrian went completely still.
Maya recognized the voice.
Victor.
“You’re still alive,” Victor said.
Adrian’s hand tightened around the photograph.
“Where are you?”
A quiet laugh came from the hallway.
“Closer than you think.”
Then the footsteps disappeared.
Adrian rushed into the corridor.
Maya followed.
Nothing.
No Victor.
No footsteps.
Only an open exit door swinging slowly in the wind.
Adrian stared at it.
Then he looked down.
Something lay on the floor.
A small silver key.
Maya picked it up.
There was a number engraved on it.
27.
Adrian stared at the key.
“What does it open?”
His expression changed.
“Not a door.”
“What, then?”
He looked at Maya.
“A safety-deposit box.”
“Whose?”
Adrian hesitated.
“Your father’s.”
Maya’s heart stopped.
“My father had a safety-deposit box?”
“Apparently.”
“And you knew nothing about it?”
“No.”
She looked at the key.
For the first time that night, hope flickered through the fear.
Maybe her father’s disappearance wasn’t the end of his story.
Maybe it was the beginning of theirs.
Adrian reached for her hand.
“This changes everything.”
Maya looked into his eyes.
“Then let’s find out what my father left behind.”
Neither of them noticed the small security camera in the corner.
Its red light blinked once.
Twice.
And somewhere else in the city, someone watched them leave.
A voice whispered into a phone:
“They found the key.”
A pause.
Then another voice answered:
“Then it’s time to bring her father home.”
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