I Came Home From Deployment Three Days Early… Then I Found a Notebook With My Name on It
Chapter 9
Claire sat at the kitchen table, staring at nothing.
“I remember the box,” she finally said.
“What was inside?”
“A key.”
Ethan leaned forward.
“What did it look like?”
“Small. Brass. There was a number engraved on it.”
“Which number?”
“Seven.”
Mia stood abruptly.
“Seven.”
“What?”
“The old farmhouse had seven rooms.”
Lucas shook his head.
“No. Six.”
Ethan looked at him.
“Seven.”
Lucas frowned.
“There’s a sealed room.”
Everyone went silent.
The old farmhouse had been empty for years.
Ethan had been there as a child, but he had never seen a seventh room.
His father had always said the building was unsafe.
Claire looked at the notes.
“Maybe that’s where the original documents are.”
They drove to the farmhouse before sunrise.
The place looked abandoned.
Dust covered the windows.
The front door was unlocked.
Ethan pushed it open.
Inside, everything smelled like old wood.
They counted the rooms.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Six.
Nothing.
Then Ethan noticed the hallway.
There was a narrow section of wall between the kitchen and the stairs.
A door-shaped outline.
He ran his hand across it.
There.
A keyhole.
Claire took a breath.
“The key.”
But before they could try it, headlights appeared outside.
A vehicle stopped.
Robert Hale stepped out.
He walked toward the farmhouse alone.
“Ethan,” he called.
Ethan moved toward the door.
Mia grabbed his arm.
“Don’t.”
Robert stopped several feet away.
“I know what you found.”
Ethan stared at him.
“Then you know it’s over.”
Robert smiled sadly.
“No.”
He looked at Claire.
“You still don’t remember what your mother did with the key.”
Claire’s face went pale.
Robert turned and walked back toward his car.
Before getting inside, he called back:
“Ask her what happened the night your father died.”
