Chapter 293 THE WOMAN ON THE RECORDING
Chapter 293 THE WOMAN ON THE RECORDING
POV: Zuri
The voice is gone.
But I still hear it.
My mother's voice.
Impossible.
She had been dead for years.
Gone.
Buried.
Yet somehow...
She had just warned me not to trust the man who erased my memories.
Marco looks at me.
“Zuri, what exactly did you hear?”
I stare at the radio.
My throat tightens.
“Mom.”
Nobody speaks.
Amani looks at Ghost.
“Check it.”
Ghost immediately moves toward the equipment.
Ghost pulls the radio apart.
Nothing.
No active signal.
No transmitter.
No hidden frequency.
Rex checks the medical equipment.
He shakes his head.
“Nothing.”
Amani turns toward me.
“Tell me exactly what you heard.”
I do.
Every word.
Every pause.
Every change in her voice.
The way she said my name.
Marco listens quietly.
Then his face changes.
“What?”
I look at him.
“You know something.”
He takes a breath.
“Mother used coded recordings.”
Evelyn looks up.
“During the Silver Wolf days?”
Marco nods.
“Antonio monitored normal communications. She knew that.”
“So she created messages that could only activate under certain conditions,” Evelyn says.
“Yes.”
I look at the Project Zuri file.
“What conditions?”
Marco's eyes follow mine.
“Your memory returning.”
A cold feeling moves through me.
“So she knew this would happen?”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe?”
Marco looks at me.
“Mother always planned three steps ahead.”
I look back at the radio.
Then the medical equipment.
My mother had left something behind.
Something she expected me to find.
Evelyn moves toward the old equipment.
“Wait.”
She studies the recorder.
“There is another layer.”
Amani looks at her.
“What do you mean?”
“This wasn't a radio transmission.”
She points toward the medical machine.
“The equipment triggered it.”
I stare at the machine.
“Because I opened the file?”
Evelyn nods.
“Most likely.”
The room goes silent.
Then the recorder clicks.
Static fills the room.
Everyone freezes.
My mother's voice returns.
Soft.
Faint.
But unmistakable.
“Zuri.”
My heart breaks all over again.
“If Elias is still alive...”
A pause.
“He knows where I hid it.”
My breathing stops.
The ledger.
My mother's voice continues.
“But he was not the one who hid it.”
The recording cuts.
I stare at the machine.
“She knew.”
Marco nods slowly.
“She knew about the ledger.”
“And she trusted me with it.”
“Yes.”
“But why me?”
Marco doesn't answer.
Maybe he doesn't know.
Maybe he does.
I close my eyes.
I try to remember the box.
The memory comes.
This time...
It stays.
I'm younger.
Much younger.
I'm standing inside the estate.
Marco is beside me.
My mother kneels in front of us.
She looks frightened.
But she is trying not to show it.
She holds a small silver key.
She places it in my hand.
Her fingers close around mine.
“Only you can open it.”
I stare at her.
“What is it?”
She smiles sadly.
“Something that belongs to you.”
The memory shifts.
I see the metal box.
Small.
Dark.
Hidden beneath my clothes.
Then I'm running.
Not through the estate.
Somewhere else.
Somewhere outside.
A road.
A vehicle.
Rain.
Then darkness.
I open my eyes.
I gasp.
Amani is beside me.
“What happened?”
“I remember the box.”
Marco steps forward.
“Where?”
I shake my head.
“I don't know.”
“Try.”
“I did.”
I close my eyes again.
Nothing.
The location is buried.
But one thing is clear.
I didn't hide the box inside the estate.
I took it somewhere else.
Somewhere Antonio couldn't find.
I turn toward Marco.
“You were there.”
He doesn't deny it.
“Yes.”
“You remember that night.”
“Yes.”
“Mother gave you instructions too.”
Marco looks down.
“She told me one thing.”
“What?”
“Protect you.”
My chest tightens.
“And you failed.”
His face falls.
“Yes.”
“What happened to the box?”
“I tried to find it after you were taken.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“I thought Father had found it.”
I stare at him.
“You never told me.”
“I couldn't.”
“Why?”
Marco looks directly at me.
“Because I didn't know what remembering the box would do to you.”
I say nothing.
He continues.
“The first time they altered your memories, you were barely conscious afterward.”
His voice breaks.
“You didn't know me.”
I swallow.
“I didn't know you?”
“No.”
He looks away.
“You looked at me like I was a stranger.”
That hurts more than I expected.
“I was afraid that if I forced you to remember everything too quickly...”
He pauses.
“You would break.”
I look at him.
“You were protecting me.”
“I was trying to.”
I don't forgive him.
Not completely.
But I understand him a little more.
The recorder clicks again.
Everyone turns.
My mother's voice returns.
This time...
She sounds tired.
“Zuri.”
I step closer.
“Elias didn't choose what happened to you.”
Marco looks at the floor.
The recording continues.
“He worked for your father.”
My heart sinks.
“But eventually, he tried to stop the procedures.”
A pause.
“Antonio threatened his family.”
I close my eyes.
“He continued because he believed keeping you alive was the only way to protect you.”
The recording crackles.
Then her voice becomes quieter.
“But that does not make him innocent.”
The message ends.
Nobody speaks.
I stare at the machine.
Dr. Elias Voss wasn't simply a monster.
But he wasn't innocent either.
He had followed Antonio's orders.
He had helped bury my memories.
And at some point...
He had tried to stop.
Amani looks at me.
“You don't have to trust him.”
“I know.”
“But he may have answers.”
I nod.
“Then we find him.”
Ghost returns from the tunnel.
“We found the facility.”
Amani immediately turns.
“Where is it?”
“About two hours outside the city.”
“Then we leave now.”
Ghost shakes his head.
“There's a problem.”
“What?”
“The facility is empty.”
Silence.
“No staff?”
“None.”
“Patients?”
“Gone.”
“Security?”
“Cleared out.”
Amani's expression hardens.
“Someone got there first.”
Ghost hands him a document.
“A medical transport record.”
Amani reads it.
Then passes it to me.
The patient name is clear.
ELIAS VOSS.
Status:
TRANSFERRED.
Destination:
UNKNOWN.
My stomach drops.
“We're too late.”
Ghost nods.
“Looks that way.”
Marco takes the document.
His face becomes pale.
“Father moved him.”
Amani looks at him.
“Or Voss moved himself.”
I stare at the paper.
Either way...
The man who knows what happened to me is gone.
I step outside the medical room.
The air feels different.
Too cold.
Too quiet.
Amani finds me sitting against the wall.
He sits beside me.
I stare at the ground.
“I don't know who I am anymore.”
He doesn't answer immediately.
I look at him.
“What if everything I remember is wrong?”
“Then we'll find the truth.”
“What if I don't like who I was?”
He looks directly into my eyes.
“You're Zuri.”
I swallow.
“What if that isn't enough?”
“It is to me.”
Something inside me breaks.
Not from pain.
From relief.
I lean against him.
He doesn't say anything.
He doesn't promise that everything will be okay.
He just stays.
For the first time since my memories began returning...
I let myself rest against someone.
No fear.
No questions.
Just Amani.
“Zuri.”
Ghost's voice comes from the hallway.
I sit up.
He is holding a photograph.
“Found this at the facility.”
I take it.
My heart stops.
Dr. Elias Voss stands in the photograph.
Beside him...
A woman.
My mother.
I know her face.
I know those eyes.
I know that smile.
My hands begin shaking.
“No.”
Marco comes closer.
“When was this taken?”
Ghost points to the back.
A handwritten date.
I read it.
My blood runs cold.
The date is after my mother's supposed death.
She was alive.
Years after we were told she was dead.
I turn the photograph over.
There is another message.
One sentence.
THE DOCTOR DIDN'T ERASE ZURI'S MEMORIES.
My heart pounds.
I read the second line.
HE WAS TRYING TO PROTECT THE ONE MEMORY ANTONIO FEARED MOST.
I stare at the words.
The room seems to disappear around me.
If Voss wasn't trying to destroy everything I remembered...
Then what was he protecting?
I look at Marco.
He has no answer.
I look at Amani.
Neither does he.
My fingers tighten around the photograph.
“What memory?”
Nobody speaks.
And somewhere deep inside my mind...
Something moves.
A memory waiting to come back.