Chapter 3 - The Paper Trail
When I finally made it back to my apartment, I didn't turn on the lights. I moved through the shadows of my living room, my pulse echoing in my ears. I needed to find the box. The one I had hidden in the crawlspace years ago—the box containing everything I had kept from that summer.
I pulled it out, dust coating my hands. Inside were old Polaroids, a dried wildflower, and the journal. My fingers shook as I flipped through the pages. I had stopped writing in it the day Julian vanished.
Then, I noticed something. The pages at the end of the journal, which I remembered being blank, were filled with handwriting. It wasn't mine. It was sharp, jagged, and cold.
“You thought you were free, Alice. But you left the door open. You left the promise behind, and now the boy has come to collect the debt.”
The entry was dated three days ago.
My breath hitched. Someone had been in my house. Someone had accessed my most private memories, manipulated them, and used a child—a child who looked remarkably like the boy I had loved—to draw me out.
I grabbed my laptop and began a frantic digital search. I looked up the foster care records for the state of Washington, hacking into public databases with the limited knowledge I had gained from my years in tech support. I searched for 'Toby' and 'Riverside General.' The trail was cold until I found a grainy surveillance photo from a grocery store three towns over.
There, in the background, was a man. He was wearing a hat, but there was no mistaking the scar that ran across his jaw—a scar I had given him in a desperate, frantic struggle fifteen years ago. It was Marcus. Julian’s older brother. The man who had orchestrated the disappearance of everyone I loved to secure a massive inheritance.
He wasn't dead. And he had Toby.
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My phone vibrated. A text message from an unknown number: “He’s the only one who knows where the money is, Alice. Bring him to the bridge at midnight, or he won’t see another sunrise. Don’t call the police. You know what happens when you involve them.”
I realized then that Toby wasn't a random victim. He was a pawn in a game of blood and greed. And I was the only person who could save him.
