My Grandfather Left Me a Diary in an Abandoned Basement — The Last Page Had My Name on It
CHAPTER 5
They ran.
Footsteps echoed behind them.
Maya and Daniel reached the entrance just as a flashlight appeared in the darkness.
A voice called out.
“Maya!”
She recognized it.
Sheriff Morris.
They kept running.
They didn’t stop until they reached the car.
Daniel locked the doors.
Maya was shaking.
“He knew my name.”
“He knows more than that.”
Daniel started the engine.
They drove toward town.
Maya stared at the photograph.
“Why was I there?”
Daniel didn’t answer.
“Daniel.”
“I don’t know.”
“You do.”
He sighed.
“My mother worked at the county hospital in 1999.”
Maya turned toward him.
“What does that have to do with me?”
“She once told me there was a girl admitted under a false name.”
“What girl?”
“A little girl found near the old mill.”
Maya’s breathing stopped.
“What happened to her?”
“My mother said the case disappeared.”
“Disappeared?”
“Records were removed.”
Maya looked at the photograph.
“Was that girl me?”
Daniel didn’t answer.
They returned to the archive.
Daniel searched old hospital records.
After several hours, he found something.
A patient record dated April 18, 1999.
Female child. Approximately five years old.
Name:
Unknown.
Condition:
Mild concussion.
Emergency contact:
David Bennett.
Maya stared at the screen.
Her father had signed for her.
But there was something else.
The attending physician had written:
Child repeatedly states: “They took my mother.”
Maya felt sick.
“My mother was alive in 1999.”
“Yes.”
“She never told me about this.”
Daniel opened another document.
A death certificate.
Maya’s mother’s name.
Date of death:
2003.
Cause:
Car accident.
But the signature looked wrong.
Daniel zoomed in.
“This wasn’t issued by the hospital.”
“Then who issued it?”
“The county.”
Maya suddenly understood.
Someone had rewritten her family’s history.
Her father.
Her mother.
Her grandfather.
The accident.
Everything.
She returned to the diary.
A final sentence on the next page caught her attention.
David believes Eleanor is still alive.
Maya whispered:
“My mother.”
Daniel looked at her.
“That’s impossible.”
Maya shook her head.
“No.”
She closed the diary.
“My grandfather believed she was alive.”
Then her phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
No one spoke.
Then a woman’s voice whispered:
“Your grandfather was right.”
The call ended.
