Chapter 291 THE MAN IN THE HOUSE
Chapter 291 THE MAN IN THE HOUSE
POV: Zuri
The house locks down.
One door after another clicks shut.
Then the windows.
Click.
Click.
Click.
My heart pounds.
The lights suddenly disappear.
Darkness swallows the room.
Then red emergency lights flicker on.
Antonio's voice comes through the speakers.
“Did you really think I wouldn't know you'd come home?”
My body freezes.
I hate that voice.
I hate what it does to me.
My mind tells me I'm no longer a child.
I'm not trapped in his house.
I'm not helpless.
But my body remembers.
The shouting.
The fear.
The locked doors.
The fire.
Amani notices my breathing change.
“Zuri.”
He moves closer.
I force myself to breathe.
Marco looks toward the ceiling.
“Stay together.”
Ghost raises his weapon.
“Where's the exit?”
Marco points toward Antonio's office.
“There.”
Amani looks at him.
“It's locked.”
“Not the door.”
Marco walks toward the desk.
“The passage behind it.”
I stare at him.
“You knew about this?”
Marco gives me a tired look.
“I know every way out of this house.”
He presses his hand against the wall.
A section clicks.
Then moves.
A dark passage opens behind the office.
Amani looks inside.
“How long have you known about this?”
Marco doesn't answer.
I do.
“You've been here.”
He looks at me.
“Yes.”
“Waiting for me?”
“No.”
His voice is quiet.
“Hiding from him.”
We enter the passage.
Ghost goes first.
Rex follows.
Amani stays beside me.
Marco brings up the rear.
The door closes behind us.
Darkness surrounds us.
The air is cold.
Damp.
It smells like concrete and old smoke.
I stop.
I know this smell.
My chest tightens.
A memory flashes.
A child running through darkness.
Someone carrying me.
Arms around my body.
A man's voice.
“Don't look back.”
I blink.
The memory disappears.
Marco notices.
“You remember this place.”
I look at him.
“I think so.”
He says nothing.
We continue walking.
The tunnel slopes downward.
Every step feels familiar.
Then I see something scratched into the wall.
A small mark.
Two lines crossing a dagger.
The Moretti family crest.
My stomach turns.
I touched this wall before.
I know I did.
“When I was a child,” I whisper.
Marco nods.
“You came through here.”
“Why?”
His face hardens.
“The night of the fire.”
I stop walking.
“Tell me everything.”
Marco looks at me.
“Now.”
“We don't have time.”
“We have time.”
His eyes move toward the tunnel behind us.
Antonio's voice is gone.
That somehow makes everything worse.
Marco finally speaks.
“After Father found out Mother was trying to get you out, he locked the estate down.”
My throat tightens.
“Mother was alive?”
“Yes.”
“She survived the crash?”
“Yes.”
I close my eyes.
All those years.
All those lies.
Marco continues.
“She knew about the Silver Wolf network.”
“Why?”
“Because she had been helping people escape Antonio's operations.”
My heart pounds.
“My mother was helping them?”
“She was trying to protect people Father wanted dead.”
I look at him.
“And me?”
“She wanted you away from him.”
“What happened?”
Marco's voice becomes rough.
“The night of the fire, Mother tried to get you through the tunnels.”
I swallow.
“You came with us?”
“I tried.”
“Then what happened?”
“Father found us.”
The memory returns.
Fire.
Smoke.
My mother's voice.
Marco carrying me.
Antonio screaming.
A car waiting outside.
Then a needle.
Pain.
Darkness.
I grip the wall.
“Why didn't you save me?”
Marco looks down.
“I tried.”
His voice cracks.
“I failed.”
We keep moving.
The tunnel becomes narrower.
Amani walks beside me.
He doesn't touch me.
He waits.
I appreciate that.
Marco continues behind us.
“I needed Father to believe I was dead.”
I turn around.
“What?”
“If Antonio thought I survived, he'd use me to find you.”
“So you disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“And you let me believe you abandoned me.”
Marco's eyes fill with regret.
“I thought it was the only way.”
“You could have found me.”
“I tried.”
“When?”
“Again and again.”
“Then why didn't you?”
“Because by the time I found a real trail...”
He stops.
I turn toward him.
“What?”
“Father had already changed everything.”
My stomach drops.
“My identity.”
He nods.
“Your name. Your records. Your history.”
“And my memories.”
His silence answers me.
“Why didn't you tell me sooner?”
Marco looks at me.
“Because I was afraid you'd remember Mother.”
I stare at him.
“Why?”
“Because remembering her meant remembering the fire.”
“And remembering the fire meant remembering what Father did.”
I don't know whether to hug him or hate him.
Maybe both.
The tunnel suddenly shakes.
BOOM!
The ground moves beneath our feet.
Rocks fall from the ceiling.
“Move!”
Amani grabs my hand.
We run.
Another explosion sounds behind us.
The tunnel entrance collapses.
Ghost looks back.
“They sealed the passage.”
Rex coughs through the dust.
“Antonio?”
Marco stares at the fallen rocks.
“He's forcing us deeper.”
Amani looks at him.
“Why?”
Marco's face changes.
“Because he knows where we're going.”
“Where?”
Marco looks at me.
“The room.”
I feel cold.
“What room?”
“The room where they changed you.”
I stop.
“No.”
Marco nods.
“Yes.”
Amani looks between us.
“What did they do to her?”
Marco doesn't answer.
I already know the answer is going to hurt.
We reach a steel door.
Marco steps forward.
He enters a code.
The lock clicks.
The door opens.
I can't move.
Inside is a small medical room.
An old examination table.
Rusting restraints.
Broken medical equipment.
Cabinets filled with dusty files.
My breath disappears.
I know this room.
I know that chair.
I remember being strapped to it.
I remember crying.
I remember calling for Marco.
Then I see glass.
A window looking into the room.
A man standing behind it.
Antonio.
Younger.
Colder.
A doctor stands beside him.
I hear the doctor's voice.
“Are you certain?”
Antonio doesn't hesitate.
“She must forget.”
The memory vanishes.
I grab the wall.
Amani immediately steps toward me.
“Zuri.”
I shake my head.
“Don't.”
He stops.
I stare at the chair.
“They put me there.”
Marco lowers his eyes.
“Yes.”
“They changed my memories.”
“Yes.”
“Because I saw something.”
“Yes.”
My voice breaks.
“What did I see?”
Marco doesn't answer.
“Marco.”
He looks at me.
“I don't know everything.”
I turn toward him.
“Then what do you know?”
“That Father wasn't protecting the family.”
He looks around the room.
“He was protecting a secret.”
I walk farther inside.
A file sits on the floor.
I pick it up.
The label reads:
PROJECT ZURI.
My hands shake.
Amani comes beside me.
Marco remains near the door.
I look at him.
“You knew this room existed.”
“Yes.”
“And you brought me here.”
“I thought you deserved the truth.”
Tears burn my eyes.
“You should have told me years ago.”
His face falls.
“I know.”
For the first time...
I don't see the brother I remember.
I see a man who has spent years carrying guilt.
He failed me.
But maybe he never stopped trying to fix it.
I wipe my eyes.
“Who was the doctor?”
Marco looks away.
“I don't know.”
“You're lying.”
“No.”
His voice is low.
“I never found him.”
Amani looks toward the old equipment.
“Then why bring us here?”
Marco looks at the wall.
“Because Father left something behind.”
“What?”
Before he can answer...
A monitor turns on.
Everyone freezes.
Static fills the room.
Then the screen clears.
A man's face appears.
Antonio.
My father.
Older.
Calm.
He looks directly into the camera.
“Zuri.”
My heart stops.
“If you're watching this...”
He smiles.
“Marco has finally brought you back to the beginning.”
Marco steps backward.
“No.”
The screen changes.
A file appears.
PROJECT ZURI — FINAL PHASE
My breathing becomes shallow.
Then another name appears beneath it.
DR. ELIAS VOSS.
Evelyn's face suddenly appears in a second window.
She looks terrified.
I stare at the screen.
Marco whispers,
“That's the doctor.”
Amani turns toward him.
“You know him?”
Marco shakes his head.
“No.”
Then he looks at me.
“But I know what he did.”
I stare at the name.
Dr. Elias Voss.
The man who helped erase my memories.
The man who knew what happened the night of the fire.
The man who knew what happened to my mother.
And according to the screen...
He is still alive.
My heart pounds.
All these years, I thought the past was buried.
It wasn't.
Someone had been waiting for me to come back.
And now...
I knew his name.
DR. ELIAS VOSS.