Chapter 298 THE MAN IN THE PHOTOGRAPH
Chapter 298 THE MAN IN THE PHOTOGRAPH
POV: Zuri
Marco was staring at the photograph.
Not confused.
Not surprised.
Afraid.
That scared me more than anything.
I held the photograph tighter.
“You know him.”
Marco said nothing.
“Marco.”
His jaw tightened.
Then his eyes lifted to mine.
“I know who he was.”
“Was?”
He looked back at the photograph.
His voice dropped.
“He was the man your mother trusted to get you out.”
My heart skipped.
“Get me out of where?”
Marco didn't answer.
Amani stepped closer.
“Start talking.”
Marco looked at him.
Then at me.
“The man's name was Samuel Cole.”
Amani went completely still.
I noticed immediately.
“You know him too?”
His expression hardened.
“I know the name.”
The cemetery suddenly felt colder.
Samuel Cole.
I repeated the name silently.
It didn't mean anything.
And yet...
something about it felt familiar.
Marco slipped the photograph from my hand and studied it again.
“Samuel was part of the old Silver Wolf network,” he said. “He moved people. Information. Sometimes money. He knew the mountain routes better than anyone.”
“Why was he helping Mom?”
“Because he believed Antonio was becoming too powerful.”
I stared at him.
“So Mom was planning to leave?”
Marco nodded.
“With me?”
“Yes.”
My chest tightened.
“Then what happened?”
Marco looked toward the dark road beyond the cemetery.
“Samuel was supposed to take you somewhere safe.”
“And he didn't.”
“No.”
“Why?”
“We don't know.”
That answer wasn't enough.
“Someone must know.”
Marco's face changed.
“He disappeared the same night you did.”
My stomach dropped.
“The same night?”
“The same year,” he corrected. “Six years ago.”
Six years.
The year everything inside me had been taken.
My name.
My memories.
My family.
My past.
And now there was a man who had supposedly been responsible for getting me out.
A man who disappeared at the exact same time.
I looked at the scratched-out face.
“Who scratched him out?”
Marco shook his head.
“I don't know.”
But his voice didn't sound convincing.
We moved away from the grave while Ghost and Rex continued searching the cemetery.
Amani stayed close to me.
Marco finally began talking.
“The night of the fire, your mother had everything prepared.”
“What everything?”
“A vehicle. Documents. Money. A new identity.”
“For me?”
“For you.”
I swallowed.
“What about her?”
Marco looked at the ground.
“She planned to follow later.”
I frowned.
“Why later?”
“Because Antonio was watching her.”
That made sense.
And somehow made everything worse.
My mother wasn't abandoning me.
She was trying to make me disappear first.
Marco continued.
“Samuel was supposed to take you through the mountain roads. He knew a safe route Antonio didn't.”
“Did he know about Voss?”
“Yes.”
“Did he know what Voss was going to do to me?”
Marco hesitated.
“Not everything.”
“What does that mean?”
“Your mother told him enough to keep you alive.”
I looked at the photograph again.
Samuel stood beside my mother.
He looked calm.
Trustworthy.
Like someone she believed could carry her greatest secret.
“So why did he disappear?”
Marco shook his head.
“We assumed Antonio got to him.”
“You assumed?”
“We never found a body.”
Those words hit me hard.
No body.
Just like my mother.
Just like so many people who had vanished around my family.
Amani's voice was quiet.
“Then we don't assume anymore.”
I looked at him.
He was staring at the photograph.
“We find him.”
Amani stepped away from us.
His expression had changed.
I followed him.
“What do you know about Samuel?”
He took a breath.
“He knew the mountains.”
“That isn't what I asked.”
Amani looked at me.
“Years ago, the Iron Kings used routes that passed through the same territory.”
“Because of him?”
“Possibly.”
“Did you meet him?”
“No.”
His answer was immediate.
“Then why do you know his name?”
“Because men like Samuel become part of club history.”
I studied his face.
There was something else.
“You're hiding something.”
Amani's jaw flexed.
“I'm not hiding anything from you.”
“Then tell me.”
He looked at the photograph again.
“Samuel was known for helping people disappear.”
A pause.
“And one of those people may have been you.”
My breath caught.
Another memory flashed.
A motorcycle.
Wind against my face.
A man's voice.
“Hold on.”
I heard myself laughing.
A younger version of me.
Happy.
Free.
Then—
Darkness.
I grabbed my head.
Amani caught my arm.
“Zuri.”
“I saw something.”
“What?”
“I was on a motorcycle.”
Marco stepped closer.
“Who was driving?”
“I don't know.”
But somewhere deep inside...
I knew.
Evelyn took the photograph from me.
She examined it under the weak cemetery light.
“Wait.”
She turned it over.
“There.”
A faint mark was visible near the bottom corner.
Not writing.
Coordinates.
Evelyn's eyes narrowed.
“This was hidden.”
Marco looked over her shoulder.
His face changed.
“I know that road.”
“Where does it lead?” Amani asked.
Marco pointed toward the mountains.
“An old logging route.”
My heart began racing.
I knew that road too.
Not from the map.
From memory.
“I've been there.”
Everyone looked at me.
I closed my eyes.
Another fragment came.
My mother driving.
Marco sitting beside her.
Me in the back seat.
Trees passing outside the window.
My mother's hand reaching backward.
She touched my knee.
Her voice was soft.
“Whatever happens, Zuri...”
The memory broke.
I opened my eyes.
“What?”
Amani waited.
I shook my head.
“I don't know.”
Marco looked troubled.
“That road was part of the escape plan.”
I stared at him.
“You're telling me my mother took me there?”
“Yes.”
“Then why don't I remember?”
Marco's answer was barely a whisper.
“Because that's what they took from you.”
Marco finally told me the part he had kept hidden.
My mother hadn't planned to disappear with me.
She had planned to make me disappear.
At least for a while.
Samuel would take me somewhere safe.
Voss would suppress enough of my memories to keep me from revealing who I was.
Then my mother would follow once Antonio stopped watching her.
The plan was supposed to be temporary.
The memory suppression was supposed to protect me.
It wasn't supposed to become my entire life.
My throat tightened.
“What happened?”
Marco looked at me.
“Antonio found out.”
“And then?”
“Everything changed.”
The fire.
The injection.
The missing years.
The false life.
The fear.
All of it suddenly connected.
My mother hadn't asked Voss to erase me forever.
Antonio had turned a temporary protection into a prison.
I looked at Marco.
“You knew this?”
“I knew pieces.”
“You should have told me.”
“I was trying to find you.”
“You should have tried harder.”
Pain crossed his face.
“I know.”
For the first time...
I believed him.
Not because I trusted him completely.
But because guilt was written all over his face.
Amani suddenly raised his hand.
Everyone stopped.
“What?” I whispered.
He looked toward the road.
“Vehicle.”
Ghost was already moving.
The dark SUV started its engine.
Then it sped away.
Ghost and Rex ran after it.
Too late.
The vehicle disappeared around the bend.
Ghost returned minutes later.
“Fake plate.”
Amani's expression hardened.
“Anything left behind?”
Ghost held up his hand.
Something silver rested in his palm.
A wolf-shaped pin.
My heart sank.
Another Silver Wolf symbol.
But this one was different.
There was no number.
No code.
Only one letter.
S.
Marco stared at it.
His face went pale.
“Samuel.”
I looked at him.
“Could he still be alive?”
Marco didn't answer.
Amani did.
“We're going to find out.”
I looked down at the photograph again.
My mother was smiling.
Marco was young.
And Samuel's face had been deliberately scratched away.
For the first time, I wasn't chasing ghosts.
I was chasing people who had once loved me enough to try to save me.
I turned toward Amani.
“I want the truth.”
He held my gaze.
“You'll get it.”
We stood beside the open grave for another moment.
My mother's grave.
My mother's secrets.
My stolen memories.
Everything I thought I knew about her had changed.
She hadn't abandoned me.
She had fought for me.
Even when she knew she might lose.
I touched the photograph.
“Mom,” I whispered.
The wind moved through the trees.
No answer came.
But for the first time...
I didn't feel completely alone.
Then my phone vibrated.
Once.
I pulled it from my pocket.
Unknown number.
One message.
YOU'RE LOOKING FOR THE WRONG MAN.
My heart stopped.
Another message appeared.
SAMUEL NEVER BETRAYED YOUR MOTHER.
I stared at the screen.
A third message arrived.
THE BETRAYER WAS SOMEONE SHE TRUSTED MORE.
A cold feeling spread through me.
Amani stepped closer.
“Who is it?”
“I don't know.”
Then another image began loading.
A photograph.
I opened it.
My blood turned cold.
My mother stood in the picture.
Beside her was Dr. Elias Voss.
They looked younger.
Calmer.
Like they were working together.
But that wasn't what made my hands shake.
Someone stood behind them.
A man.
Tall.
Familiar.
My father.
Antonio.
He wasn't looking at the camera.
He wasn't looking at Voss.
He was looking directly at my mother.
Watching her.
Waiting.
I zoomed in.
My breath caught.
Because my mother wasn't smiling anymore.
She was afraid.
The photograph suddenly felt less like evidence...
and more like a warning.
Amani looked over my shoulder.
“Zuri.”
I couldn't speak.
Marco took one look at the image.
His face drained of color.
“What?”
He whispered the words.
“I've seen that photograph before.”
I turned toward him.
“Where?”
He didn't answer.
“Marco.”
His eyes remained fixed on the screen.
“Inside Father's office.”
My stomach dropped.
“Then why was it hidden?”
Marco finally looked at me.
“Because that photograph was taken before you disappeared.”
I stared at the image.
The same year.
The same people.
The same secrets.
And now I knew one thing for certain.
Someone had lied to me.
Maybe everyone had.
My phone vibrated again.
One final message appeared.
ASK VOSS WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THIS PHOTO WAS TAKEN.
Then the number disappeared.
No contact.
No trace.
Nothing.
I looked at Amani.
He was already reaching for his weapon.
“Whoever sent that message knows we're here.”
I looked toward the mountains.
Toward the road Samuel had once been supposed to take me through.
And suddenly I wasn't sure who we were hunting anymore.
Samuel.
Voss.
Or the person who had been watching us all along.
I closed my fingers around the phone.
“Then we find Voss.”
Marco shook his head.
“Zuri—”
“No.”
I looked at him.
“I'm done letting dead people and missing people tell me what my life was.”
My voice shook.
“But I'm going to find out.”
Amani stepped beside me.
And together...
we walked away from the open grave.
Behind us, the darkness swallowed the cemetery.
But somewhere beyond those mountains...
someone was waiting.
And they already knew we were coming.