Chapter 19 THE SECRET PLACE
It was the next day, but the tension from the night before was still in the air. I couldn’t stop thinking about the video of Victoria, Greg, and Fred planning everything, talking about my father like he was just a problem they needed to erase.
I was in the kitchen, making tea with my hands still shaking a little.
Carson walked in. He didn’t say anything at first, he just watched me for a few seconds.
“You didn’t sleep again?” he asked.
I shook my head. “I tried, but I kept hearing their voices,” I said. “It’s like they’re still in my head,”I added.
He walked to me and took the cup from my hand. “Sit down,” he said.
I sat at the table and looked at him.
“What now?” I asked.
“We go deeper,” he said. “We dig until we find something that can destroy them,”He added.
“We already have the video,” I said.
He shook his head. “The video is powerful, but it’s not enough. People like Greg and Victoria—they can find a way to spin it so we need more. We need something that ties it all together,”He said.
I looked at him. “And where do we find that?”I asked.
He paused and looked around like someone might be listening.
“There’s a place,” he said. “Greg had a secret location, like a safehouse. I heard about it a long time ago when I worked with one of his old partners. No one talks about it now. But I know it exists.”He said.
“A safehouse?” I asked.
He nodded. “If there’s anything he’s hiding, it’ll be there,”He said.
I looked down. “You’re saying we break in?”
“Yes,” he said. “Tonight,”he added.
“Isn’t that dangerous?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said. “Very. But we don’t have a choice,”He added.
That night, we drove out of the city. The drive was long and quiet. There were no lights. Just trees, the sky, and the sound of our tires on the gravel.
“Are you scared?” Carson asked as he drove.
“Yes,” I replied. “But not just because of tonight. I’m scared of the truth. What if there’s more? What if it’s worse than we thought?”I asked.
He looked at me for a second, then turned back to the road.
“No matter how bad it is,” he said, “you won’t face it alone.”He said again.
We reached the place around midnight. It looked like an old storage house.
“This is it,” Carson said.
We parked the car far away and walked the rest of the way, quiet and careful.
“Are there cameras?” I whispered.
“Maybe,” he said. “But they don’t connect to the police. Greg doesn’t trust anyone. He handles everything himself,”He added.
We reached the side of the building. Carson pulled out a small tool from his pocket.
“You’ve done this before,” I said.
He looked at me. “I’ve done a lot of things I’m not proud of,” he said. “But tonight, I’m doing it for the right reason.”
He got the door open after a few tries and we stepped inside.
“Over there,” he said, pointing to a steel door.
He tried to open it, but it was locked with a keypad.
“I’ll try something,” he said. “Give me a second.”
I watched nervously as he pressed numbers, guessing different combinations.
Then suddenly, the door opened.
Inside was a small room. A table, a few shelves, and a cabinet. There was a laptop on the table and a pack of files.
Carson walked straight to the laptop and turned it on.
I opened the cabinet and found more photos. Some of my father, some of my mother and one of me when I was very little.
“Why does he have pictures of me as a child?” I asked.
Carson looked up from the laptop. “He’s been watching you for a long time,” he said.
“What kind of person does that?” I asked.
“A dangerous one,” Carson replied.
Suddenly, we heard a noise outside.
“Did you hear that?” I whispered.
Carson nodded and stood up. He walked to the window and peeked through the blinds.
“There’s someone outside,” he said.
“What do we do?” I asked.
“We hide. Now,”He said.
He turned off the lights and pulled me behind a shelf. We crouched there, silent. I could hear footsteps approaching and the door creaked open.
Someone walked in, I was scared but I held my breath.
The person walked around the room slowly. Then he stopped, we heard papers being moved,and drawers being opened.
Then suddenly, the laptop made a sound. The screen lit up again.
“Someone turned this on,” the voice said.
It was a man’s voice. Deep and calm.
Then another voice replied.
“They’re here. Find them.”
Carson grabbed my hand and whispered, “On my signal, we run.”He said.
My heart was pounding so hard I thought they could hear it.
“Now,” Carson said.
We ran out from behind the shelf and pushed past the men. One of them grabbed my arm but I kicked him and Carson punched the other one.
We ran outside, while the men chased after us.
Carson pulled out a small smoke bomb from his pocket and threw it. The place was filled with thick smoke.
“Keep running!” he shouted.
We reached the car and jumped in.
“Go! Go! Go!” I screamed.
Carson started the car and we sped away, leaving the men behind in the smoke.
I was breathing hard, my chest rising and falling fast.
“We could have died,” I said.
“But we didn’t,” he said. “We made it,”He added.
“What did you get from the laptop?” I asked.
He smiled a little. “Everything. I copied the files while you were looking at the cabinet.”
“What’s in them?” I asked.
“Records, names, payments and plans. Even emails, enough to burn Greg and Victoria to the ground,” he said.
“Fred too?” I asked.
“We’ll see,” he said.
Back at the house, we locked every door and window. We didn’t talk much, we just sat together in the living room, holding each other.
“You okay?” Carson asked after a while.
“I don’t know,” I said. “But I feel like I can breathe again. A little.”
He touched my face gently.
“We’re getting close,” he said. “I can feel it. Just a bit more.”
“And then what?” I asked.
“Then we make them pay,”He replied.
I nodded slowly. “I want to be the one to end this.”I said.
“You will,” he said. “And I’ll be right beside you.”
For the first time in a long time, I believed him.
And for the first time since the lies began—I felt strong.