Chapter 7 - THE MOTHER WHO THOUGHT I WAS THE MONSTER
Joseph ran toward Operating Room Three.
The halls of Cumberland exploded into movement around him.
Doors slammed.
Footsteps echoed.
Calvin’s men exchanged gunfire with Gabriel’s security team somewhere behind them.
Joseph heard none of it clearly.
On the monitor, Hilda had held a syringe to Camille’s neck.
That image had erased everything else.
He reached a junction.
Left.
Right.
Margaret shouted, “Right!”
They turned.
Two armed men appeared.
Calvin fired first.
One dropped.
Joseph drove the other into the wall, disarmed him, and kept moving.
“Three minutes,” Calvin said.
Joseph did not ask what happened after three minutes.
At the end of the corridor stood double doors.
OPERATING 3.
Joseph approached.
Gabriel’s voice came through an intercom.
“Come alone.”
Calvin shook his head.
Joseph removed his weapon.
Placed it on the floor.
Calvin stared.
“Boss.”
“My daughter is inside.”
“It’s a trap.”
“I know.”
Joseph entered.
The operating room was bright enough to hurt.
Camille lay on a table.
Hilda stood beside her.
The syringe was gone.
Elena stood near the opposite wall.
For two years Joseph had dreamed about seeing her again.
In some dreams he ran to her.
In others he could not move.
Reality was worse.
Elena was painfully thin.
Her hair reached her shoulders.
A scar ran from her temple toward her ear.
She looked older.
Frightened.
Alive.
Joseph whispered her name.
“Elena.”
She recoiled.
That hurt more than any bullet.
Gabriel stepped from behind a surgical curtain.
Joseph’s older brother looked like a ghost given flesh.
Same dark eyes.
Same Alvarez jaw.
A burn scar climbed one side of his neck.
“Family reunion,” Gabriel said.
Joseph ignored him.
“Elena.”
She stared at Joseph.
“You’re not supposed to be here.”
Her voice was the one from the phone.
He took one small step.
“You know me.”
“I know what you did.”
Joseph stopped.
Gabriel smiled.
There it was.
Two years of psychological work.
Two years of false memories.
Joseph asked quietly, “What did I do?”
Elena’s eyes filled.
“You gave me to him.”
Joseph did not look at Gabriel.
“No.”
“You said I knew too much.”
“No.”
“You chose the girls over me.”
“Elena, listen to me.”
“You signed the transfer.”
Gabriel held up a document.
Joseph recognized his own signature.
Forged.
Or copied.
“You see?” Gabriel said.
Joseph finally looked at him.
“You forged better when we were teenagers.”
Gabriel laughed.
Elena flinched.
Joseph turned back to her.
“Elena, Rosalyn remembers you.”
Her face changed.
“She remembers the songs.”
Elena swallowed.
Joseph continued.
“She told me yelling makes people lie.”
Tears spilled down Elena’s cheeks.
“That’s what you used to say.”
Gabriel’s smile vanished slightly.
Joseph took another step.
“You came to the nursery.”
Elena touched the scar near her temple.
“I don’t remember.”
“Yes, you do.”
“I remember pieces.”
“Then trust the pieces that belong to you.”
Hilda interrupted.
“How touching.”
Joseph looked at her.
For seven years, Hilda had served Christmas meals.
Comforted Rosalyn through fevers.
Arranged Elena’s flowers.
Stood behind Joseph at his wife’s funeral.
“Why?” he asked.
Hilda appeared almost offended.
“You think this was personal?”
“You starved toddlers.”
“I controlled variables.”
Joseph’s eyes became flat.
“They have names.”
“And their father built an empire by treating people like numbers.”
Gabriel smiled.
Joseph understood.
This was how monsters excused themselves.
They found someone else’s sins and used them as permission.
“You want the ledger,” Joseph said.
Gabriel nodded.
“Leah has it.”
“She did.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrowed.
Joseph smiled faintly.
“I copied it.”
That was a lie.
Gabriel could not know.
“And uploaded it.”
Another lie.
Hilda looked toward Gabriel.
Joseph saw doubt.
Good.
“Kill him,” Hilda said.
Gabriel did not move.
Joseph watched them.
There was the fracture.
Hilda thought she was a partner.
Gabriel thought everyone was an employee.
Joseph exploited it.
“She doesn’t know, does she?”
Hilda frowned.
“Know what?”
Joseph looked at Gabriel.
“About Louisville.”
Gabriel’s expression changed.
Joseph had no idea what he was implying.
But guilty people supplied their own secrets.
Hilda turned.
“What about Louisville?”
Gabriel snapped, “Ignore him.”
Joseph smiled.
“You told her the fire was my fault.”
Hilda stared at Gabriel.
Joseph continued.
“You told everyone that.”
“Shut up.”
“You burned the warehouse yourself.”
Gabriel stepped closer.
Joseph remembered the investigation from eleven years earlier.
Insurance fraud had been suspected.
Gabriel disappeared afterward.
Joseph had always believed rival crews caused the fire.
Now Gabriel’s reaction told him something.
Joseph pressed.
“How much money?”
Hilda looked at Gabriel.
“You said Joseph ordered it.”
Gabriel’s eyes hardened.
That was enough.
Joseph turned toward Elena.
“See?”
She looked confused.
“He builds cages out of lies.”
Camille stirred.
“Daddy?”
Joseph’s entire body tensed.
“I’m here, baby.”
Hilda placed a hand on Camille’s shoulder.
Joseph’s eyes locked onto it.
“Take your hand off my daughter.”
Hilda smiled.
“No.”
Elena suddenly moved.
Fast.
She slammed a metal tray into Hilda’s wrist.
Hilda screamed.
The syringe she had concealed in her sleeve fell to the floor.
Joseph lunged.
Gabriel drew a weapon.
A gunshot exploded.
Joseph hit the floor.
Elena screamed.
Hilda grabbed Camille.
Joseph rolled and kicked Gabriel’s knee.
The weapon skidded beneath a cabinet.
The operating-room doors burst open.
Calvin entered.
Hilda pulled Camille toward a side exit.
“Stop!”
Elena tackled Hilda.
Camille slid safely onto the floor.
Joseph struck Gabriel.
Once.
Twice.
Years of grief drove the third punch.
Gabriel collapsed against the operating table.
Calvin aimed his weapon.
“Done.”
Joseph turned.
Elena held Camille.
The little girl cried against her mother’s chest.
For one impossible second, Joseph saw his family reunited.
Then Elena looked down at her hands.
Blood covered them.
Joseph’s heart stopped.
“Elena?”
She swayed.
A spreading red stain appeared across her side.
Joseph caught her.
“No.”
Elena looked confused.
“I think she had a knife.”
Hilda lay nearby, stunned but alive.
Blood coated a small surgical blade beside her hand.
Joseph pressed both hands against Elena’s wound.
“Mercer!” he shouted.
Footsteps approached.
Elena looked at Joseph.
Her eyes searched his face.
“I remember something.”
“Save it.”
“I remember the farmhouse.”
“Don’t talk.”
“You came for me.”
Joseph froze.
“What?”
“I remember hearing you outside.”
Joseph looked at Calvin.
Calvin looked confused.
“I never brought him.”
Elena struggled to stay conscious.
“You were there, Joseph.”
“I wasn’t.”
“Yes.”
Her fingers tightened around his wrist.
“I heard your voice.”
Gabriel began laughing from the floor.
Joseph looked at him.
Elena whispered, “He has recordings of you.”
Gabriel spat blood and smiled.
“Not recordings.”
Joseph stared.
Gabriel’s smile widened.
“You still haven’t figured out who opened your house to us.”
Calvin raised the gun.
“Who?”
Gabriel looked toward Joseph.
“Ask your father.”
Joseph went completely still.
His father, Manuel Alvarez, had been dead for nine years.
At least that was what Joseph believed.
May you like
Gabriel laughed again.
“This family really does have trouble staying buried.”
