Chapter 11
He stopped.
The light shook slightly in his hand.
“I know.”
It was the first time he had answered without defending himself.
I looked at the door.
“Open it.”
Alexander examined the lock. “There isn’t one.”
The door stood slightly ajar.
He pushed it inward.
The room beyond was small, perhaps once used as a records office. A narrow table sat beneath a covered window. Filing boxes lined the walls. A portable heater hummed in one corner, though the room itself was cold.
On the table lay a telephone.
Its cord disappeared through a hole in the wall.
Beside it rested a folded sheet of paper.
Alexander picked it up.
The message contained only three words.
You came together.
My breath caught.
Alexander looked at me.
“It knew we would enter the archive.”
“Or someone expected us to.”
He turned the paper over. Nothing was written on the back.
I walked to the table.
The phone was an old landline, the kind used in private offices before mobile devices became common. Its buttons were worn, but the receiver was clean.
There was no caller identification.
“May I?”
Alexander nodded.
I lifted the receiver.
A recorded voice began immediately.
“Claire.”
I knew the voice.
For several seconds, I could not move.
Alexander took one step closer.
“Who is it?”
The recording continued.
“I’m sorry. I should have told you sooner.”
Rebecca.
Her voice sounded strained, as though she had been speaking through tears but refused to let them fall.
“If you are hearing this, then you found the archive. That means I was right about the letters, and it means I no longer have the courage to wait.”
Alexander’s face tightened.
The recording clicked softly.
“I didn’t create the evidence against you, Claire. But I helped deliver it.”
My hand closed around the receiver.
Rebecca continued.
“Ten years ago, my father told me that you were dangerous. He said you were trying to take control of Alexander through Ethan and that you had arranged for me to be harmed. I believed him because I had spent my entire life believing him.”
A second of static interrupted the message.
“After your expulsion, he asked me to sign several statements confirming what I had seen. I signed them. I told myself I was protecting the family. I didn’t know he had manufactured the payments, altered the phone records, and paid the witnesses.”
Alexander looked toward the floor.