Chapter 295 THE PLACE SHE FORGOT
Chapter 295 THE PLACE SHE FORGOT
POV: Zuri
The message is still on the screen.
COME ALONE.
Amani reads it once.
Then again.
“No.”
I look at him.
“You didn't even think about it.”
“I don't need to.”
Marco steps closer.
“It's a trap.”
“Probably,” I say.
Amani's eyes lock onto mine.
“Then we don't walk into it.”
I look at the coordinates.
My heart is already racing.
Because somewhere inside me...
I know this place.
I just don't remember why.
Ghost studies the map spread across the table.
His finger follows the route.
“This is several hours outside the city.”
Rex leans closer.
“What is there?”
“Nothing.”
Ghost taps the screen.
“According to every current map, the location doesn't officially exist.”
Evelyn looks at the coordinates.
Then her expression changes.
“It used to be a Silver Wolf safehouse.”
I stare at the screen.
A strange feeling moves through me.
The road.
The mountains.
The turnoff.
Something about it feels familiar.
Too familiar.
I close my eyes.
A memory flashes.
A car.
My mother behind the wheel.
Marco sitting beside her.
Me in the back seat.
I am small.
Maybe eight.
Maybe nine.
My mother keeps checking the mirror.
“Are we there yet?”
Marco turns around.
“Almost.”
“Where are we going?”
Neither of them answers.
The memory disappears.
I open my eyes.
Amani is watching me.
“You saw something.”
I nod.
“I've been there.”
Marco looks at the map.
“Are you sure?”
“No.”
I touch my temple.
“But my body is.”
We leave before sunset.
Only five of us.
Amani.
Me.
Marco.
Ghost.
Rex.
No convoy.
No extra riders.
No unnecessary noise.
Amani rides beside me the entire way.
The mountains grow larger as we leave the city behind.
Marco rides ahead with Ghost.
For hours, nobody says much.
Finally, I break the silence.
“What was the Silver Wolf network really?”
Marco glances at me.
“They helped people disappear.”
“From Antonio?”
“From people like him.”
I look at the road.
“My mother was part of it.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't I know?”
Marco is quiet for a moment.
“Because knowing made you a target.”
I look at him.
“I was already a target.”
He has no answer.
That silence hurts more than words.
We reach the location near nightfall.
The building is hidden between trees and old stone.
From the outside, it looks abandoned.
Broken windows.
Peeling paint.
A roof that has seen better days.
But Amani notices something immediately.
“Stop.”
Everyone freezes.
He points toward the entrance.
“The door.”
It is slightly open.
Ghost moves closer.
He checks the ground.
“Someone opened it recently.”
Amani raises his weapon.
We enter carefully.
Dust covers almost everything.
Old furniture.
Empty shelves.
Broken equipment.
Nothing looks touched.
Except one table.
There is a glass of water sitting on it.
Fresh.
I stare at it.
Someone was here.
Recently.
Amani signals everyone to spread out.
I move toward the wall.
Something catches my eye.
A photograph.
Pinned beneath a knife.
I pull it free.
My breath disappears.
It's me.
As a child.
I'm standing in front of the Moretti estate.
I look happy.
Innocent.
I don't remember the photograph.
I turn it over.
Four words are written across the back.
YOU'VE BEEN HERE BEFORE.
My fingers tighten around the photograph.
Then the room disappears.
I'm somewhere else.
I'm a child again.
My mother is holding my hand.
We're standing inside this building.
The same walls.
The same table.
The same smell of dust and damp earth.
I look around.
“Where are we?”
My mother kneels.
“Somewhere safe.”
I remember Marco outside.
He's watching the road.
Someone is waiting inside.
A man in a white coat.
Dr. Elias Voss.
He doesn't look like the monster I imagined.
He looks tired.
Afraid.
My mother speaks quietly.
“If Antonio finds out she remembers, he'll never stop.”
Voss looks at me.
“She already knows too much.”
My mother closes her eyes.
“Then make sure she forgets enough to survive.”
My heart breaks.
I pull away from the memory.
“No.”
Amani catches me before I fall.
“Zuri.”
I stare at the photograph.
My mother had agreed to it.
She had allowed Voss to suppress my memories.
Not because she wanted to control me.
Because she believed forgetting was the only way I would survive.
I whisper,
“She knew.”
Amani looks at me.
“Knew what?”
“That they were going to erase my memories.”
Ghost suddenly calls from the back of the building.
“Found something.”
We follow him.
Behind an old cabinet is a narrow staircase.
Marco's face changes.
“I remember this.”
Amani looks at him.
“You've been here before?”
Marco nods.
“Once.”
We descend.
The air becomes colder.
At the bottom is a small underground room.
Shelves cover the walls.
Files.
Boxes.
Old photographs.
Most of the shelves are empty.
Someone has taken almost everything.
Almost.
One file remains.
I walk toward it.
My name is written across the front.
ZURI MORETTI
My hands tremble as I open it.
Inside is one handwritten page.
The handwriting is unfamiliar.
But I know who wrote it.
Dr. Elias Voss.
I read the first line.
I did what your mother asked.
My chest tightens.
I continue.
I regret what Antonio made me become.
The next paragraph is shorter.
Voss says he couldn't erase every memory.
Some memories were too deeply connected to emotion.
People.
Places.
Symbols.
And one memory...
The one Antonio feared most...
was still buried inside me.
But he doesn't say what it is.
Instead, there is another clue.
A series of numbers.
And beneath them:
THE WOLF KNOWS THE WAY.
I look at Evelyn's old notes.
The Silver Wolf.
Again.
Always the wolf.
A metallic click echoes through the room.
Amani immediately raises his weapon.
“Down!”
The lights go out.
A gunshot tears through the wall.
Everyone drops.
Another shot.
Then another.
“Someone's here!” Ghost shouts.
I hear footsteps above us.
Then the smell of smoke.
Fire.
“They're burning the files!”
I look toward the shelves.
Flames are spreading across the room.
“They're destroying the archive.”
Amani grabs my arm.
“Move!”
I pull away.
“My file!”
“Zuri!”
I grab the folder.
“This is my life!”
He looks at me.
For one second, I expect him to argue.
Instead, he nods.
“Then we protect it.”
He moves beside me.
Together, we run through the smoke.
Ghost and Rex cover the exit.
Marco disappears through another doorway.
Gunfire follows us.
We burst outside.
Amani pulls me behind a stone wall.
The safehouse burns behind us.
I clutch the file against my chest.
The attackers are gone.
No bodies.
No answers.
Only smoke.
I stare at the burning building.
Everything I might have learned...
is disappearing in front of me.
Amani stands beside me.
I look at him.
“They wanted this.”
“Yes.”
“They wanted the files gone.”
“Yes.”
I hold the folder tighter.
“But they didn't get this one.”
Amani looks down at it.
“No.”
He takes my hand.
“They didn't.”
For the first time tonight...
I feel like I won something.
Even if I don't know what.
Ghost walks toward us.
He is holding something.
A small silver wolf pin.
I stare at it.
“What is that?”
He turns it over.
There is writing beneath the wolf.
A name.
ELIAS VOSS.
Marco takes the pin.
His entire expression changes.
“He wasn't sending us here.”
I look at him.
“What?”
He looks toward the burning safehouse.
“He was trying to keep us away from somewhere else.”
Amani steps forward.
“Where?”
Marco looks directly at me.
“The Moretti cemetery.”
My stomach drops.
The cemetery.
The place where we had already found the Silver Wolf carving.
The place where the false Vulture attackers tried to destroy the evidence.
Then another memory hits me.
A grave.
My mother's name.
A hand pulling me away.
My mother wasn't supposed to be there.
I wasn't supposed to see her.
I whisper,
“I know that place.”
Marco looks at me.
“What do you remember?”
I stare toward the mountains.
My voice barely comes out.
“I wasn't buried there.”
Amani's eyes narrow.
“Then who was?”
I look at him.
“My mother.”
Silence.
Then Marco's phone vibrates.
He looks at the screen.
His face turns pale.
He slowly shows it to us.
A photograph.
My mother's grave.
Taken tonight.
The grave has been opened.