She Found Her Grandmother’s Diary in the Attic — Then Discovered Her Name Among 15 Missing Children
CHAPTER 9
Someone broke into the house before sunrise.
The attacker searched only one room.
The attic.
Maya and Daniel watched from the hallway.
The intruder found the empty trunk.
He cursed.
Then left.
Maya waited until he disappeared.
When she entered the attic, she noticed something beneath the floorboards.
A hidden compartment.
Inside were fourteen envelopes.
Each contained a photograph.
Each photograph showed one of the missing children as an adult.
Alive.
But there was no fifteenth.
No sixteenth.
Only fourteen.
Daniel stared at the photographs.
“They’ve been tracked.”
Maya opened the first envelope.
Inside was a note.
We scattered them so nobody could find all of us.
The second said:
Evelyn told us never to contact Maya.
The third:
Because Maya was the key.
Maya looked at Daniel.
“Key to what?”
Before he could answer, Lily appeared behind them.
She was crying.
“Because your grandmother knew who ordered the project.”
Maya turned.
“Who?”
Lily handed her an old photograph.
It showed fifteen scientists standing outside a laboratory.
Maya recognized one.
Sheriff Hale’s father.
Another was Margaret Sloan’s former employer.
But the final man made Maya’s blood run cold.
It was her grandfather.
The man Evelyn had always told her had died before she was born.
He was alive.
And standing beside the project’s director.
