Chapter 6: The Name in the Photograph
Victor moved before I could react.
"Stay here.""
I grabbed his sleeve.
"No.""
He looked at me.
"I've spent forty years waiting for answers. I'm not hiding in a room now.""
His eyes searched mine.
Then he nodded.
"Behind me.""
We rushed into the hallway.
The scream had stopped.
Mason came running upstairs.
"Someone broke the lobby window.""
"Anyone hurt?"" Victor asked.
"Not that I can see.""
"Find the nurse.""
Mason disappeared.
Victor turned to me.
"Did you recognize the girl in the photograph?""
I looked down again.
The child had dark hair.
A thin face.
A small silver pendant around her neck.
My heart began pounding.
"Victor...""
"What?""
"I've seen this girl.""
He went rigid.
"Where?""
"Here.""
I pointed to the photograph.
"Not her face. The pendant.""
He stared.
"My son had one like that.""
"The other half.""
Victor shook his head.
"No. Look closer.""
I held the photograph beneath the hallway light.
The child wasn't wearing Elijah's pendant.
She was wearing mine.
The small silver pendant my husband had given me on our twentieth anniversary.
I touched my throat.
"I thought I lost this.""
Victor looked sharply at me.
"When?""
"The night Elijah disappeared.""
He didn't speak.
I kept staring at the picture.
"I wore it that night.""
Then I remembered.
A flash.
My sister Marlene in my kitchen.
Her hand on my shoulder.
A suitcase beside the door.
Elijah standing by the sink.
Rebecca crying.
A baby blanket.
No.
My breath caught.
"A baby.""
Victor stepped closer.
"What?""
"There was a baby.""
The memory came like lightning.
A newborn crying.
Rebecca holding her.
Elijah saying, "Mom, please.""
Then Marlene shouting.
I gripped my walker.
"Elijah had a daughter.""
Victor's face went pale.
"You said you never knew.""
"I didn't remember.""
"You just remembered now.""
I closed my eyes.
"I thought Rebecca was pregnant, but Marlene told me the baby was stillborn.""
Victor stared at the photograph.
"That's her.""
"Maybe.""
"No.""
He took the photograph.
"I know that pendant.""
His voice changed.
"My mother wore it.""
I looked at him.
"What?""
"Not this one.""
He pointed to the child's neck.
"She had a matching chain. I saw it once in an old picture.""
I felt dizzy.
"What happened to the baby?""
Victor looked at the empty room.
"Maybe she's the reason my father disappeared.""
Footsteps sounded behind us.
The nurse from the lobby approached.
She looked frightened.
Victor blocked her path.
"Where is Edward Kane?""
"I don't know.""
"Where's the child in this picture?""
Her face went white.
"What child?""
Victor held the photograph up.
The nurse stared at it.
Then whispered:
"She shouldn't have that.""
I stepped forward.
"Who is she?""
The nurse looked at me.
"I don't know.""
"You're lying.""
Tears filled her eyes.
"I was told never to speak about Room 17.""
"Who told you?""
She looked over her shoulder.
"Mrs. Hart.""
My stomach dropped.
"Marlene.""
The nurse nodded.
"What did she say?""
"She said if I told anyone, people would get hurt.""
Victor's voice was cold.
"People already got hurt.""
The nurse trembled.
"Edward wasn't a patient.""
"What?""
"He was a protected resident.""
"Protected from whom?""
She didn't answer.
Victor stepped closer.
"Who paid for his care?""
The nurse looked down.
"A private trust.""
"Whose?""
"Elijah Carter's.""
I felt the room tilt.
"He's been paying for himself?""
"No.""
Victor stared.
"Then who?""
The nurse swallowed.
"His daughter.""
The air left my lungs.
"My granddaughter is paying for Elijah?""
The nurse nodded.
"She's alive?""
"I don't know.""
"What's her name?""
The nurse's lips moved.
But no sound came.
Victor took a breath.
"Tell us.""
She finally whispered:
"Isabel.""
I felt tears spill down my face.
"Isabel.""
The name meant nothing.
Yet somehow it felt like something I'd been carrying for years.
Mason returned.
"Boss.""
Victor turned.
"The sedan's back.""
"How close?""
"Outside the front entrance.""
Victor nodded.
Then he looked at the nurse.
"There's another question.""
She shook her head.
"I've already told you too much.""
"You told us Marlene controls this place.""
"No.""
Her voice became barely audible.
"Someone else does.""
"Who?""
The nurse looked directly at me.
Then said:
"The man who owns the Blue Lantern.""
My heart stopped.
"I own the Blue Lantern.""
She shook her head.
"Not anymore.""
Victor's expression hardened.
"What are you saying?""
The nurse reached into her pocket.
She pulled out a key card.
On it was a company logo.
I recognized it instantly.
It belonged to the bank that had financed the diner renovation twenty-two years ago.
"But that company closed," I said.
"No.""
The nurse looked at me.
"It changed names.""
Victor took the card.
"What's the new name?""
The nurse whispered:
"Carter Holdings.""
Victor stared at the card.
"That's my father's name.""
The nurse nodded.
"Because Edward Kane never stopped owning the diner.""
I shook my head.
"No.""
She pointed down the hall.
"Check the property records.""
Victor pulled out his phone.
His fingers moved rapidly.
Then he froze.
I watched his face.
"What?""
He looked at me.
"The Blue Lantern wasn't inherited by your husband.""
"What?""
"The deed changed hands thirty-nine years ago.""
"To whom?""
Victor turned the screen toward me.
The legal owner was listed as:
*ELIJAH CARTER.*
I stared.
My son's name.
Then Victor scrolled.
There was a second name beneath it.
*Authorized beneficiary: Isabel Carter.*
My granddaughter.
I touched the screen.
"I don't understand.""
Victor's phone buzzed.
A new message.
*YOU WERE NEVER THE OWNER.*
Then another.
*YOU WERE THE COVER.*
Then a final one.
*AND ISABEL IS COMING FOR WHAT BELONGS TO HER.*
Victor looked toward the stairwell.
"We need to leave.""
Before we could move, the lights went out.
The hallway disappeared into darkness.
A man's voice came from Room 17.
"Don't take another step.""
Victor reached for me.
Then a flashlight clicked on.
A woman stood at the far end of the hallway.
Dark hair.
Black coat.
Silver pendant.
She looked at me.
May you like
And whispered:
"Grandma?""
