Chapter 3: I Finally Learned What Happened Inside Room 417
Chapter 3: I Finally Learned What Happened Inside Room 417
I didn’t sleep that night.
Not even for a minute.
Daniel was lying beside me, breathing steadily as though nothing had happened.
As though he hadn’t just said the words that had turned my entire world upside down.
I know about Room 417.
I kept replaying them in my head.
Room 417.
The room I had never mentioned.
The room I had convinced myself was buried somewhere in the past.
The room where everything had started with Marcus.
And now Daniel knew.
I turned toward him.
His eyes were closed.
“Are you awake?”
He didn’t answer.
I stared at his face for several seconds.
Then I noticed his phone sitting on the nightstand.
I slowly reached for it.
Before my fingers could touch it, Daniel spoke.
“Don’t.”
I froze.
His eyes opened.
He looked directly at me.
“I wasn’t going through your phone,” I whispered.
“I know.”
“Then why did you say that?”
“Because you were thinking about it.”
I pulled my hand back.
Daniel sat up.
“Get dressed.”
“Why?”
“Because we’re going somewhere.”
“Where?”
“Room 417.”
My stomach tightened.
“You know where it is?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
He stood and walked toward the closet.
“You’ll find out.”
Twenty minutes later, we were driving through the city.
Neither of us spoke.
Chicago passed outside the windows, dark and wet beneath the streetlights.
I kept staring at Daniel.
He looked calm.
Too calm.
Finally, I asked,
“Did Marcus tell you?”
“No.”
“Melissa?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Daniel didn’t answer.
We eventually stopped in front of an older hotel downtown.
I recognized it immediately.
My stomach dropped.
It was the same hotel from the photograph.
The one where Daniel, Marcus, and Melissa had been standing outside three weeks before I met Marcus.
Daniel parked.
“Come on.”
We walked through the lobby.
The receptionist looked at Daniel.
Then at me.
Then she smiled.
“Welcome back, Mr. Carter.”
I stopped.
Daniel didn’t.
“Room 417,” he said.
The receptionist handed him a keycard.
My heart began pounding.
We entered the elevator.
When the doors closed, I finally asked,
“You’ve been here before.”
“Yes.”
“With Marcus?”
“Yes.”
“With Melissa?”
Daniel looked at me.
“Yes.”
The elevator stopped.
Fourth floor.
The hallway looked exactly as I remembered it.
The carpet.
The lights.
The faint smell of cleaning chemicals.
My hands became cold.
Daniel stopped in front of Room 417.
He didn’t open it.
Instead, he looked at me.
“You tell me what happened.”
I stared at the door.
“I don’t want to.”
“I know.”
“You already know.”
“Not everything.”
I swallowed.
“I met Marcus here.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“When?”
“The night Melissa introduced us.”
“That’s not what she told me.”
I looked at him.
“What did she tell you?”
“That you came here alone.”
My chest tightened.
“I didn’t.”
“I know.”
He pulled out his phone.
Then he showed me a photograph.
It was security footage.
The timestamp was visible.
I was walking into the hotel.
Marcus was beside me.
But behind us was another person.
I stared at the image.
“Who is that?”
Daniel didn’t answer.
I zoomed in.
The man was wearing a dark baseball cap.
His face was mostly hidden.
But I recognized his build.
And his jacket.
The same jacket Daniel had worn three years earlier.
I looked at my husband.
“That isn’t you.”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Daniel finally opened the door.
The room was empty.
Except for a small table in the corner.
On it sat a brown envelope.
Daniel walked over and picked it up.
He handed it to me.
My name was written across the front.
I opened it.
Inside were photographs.
Dozens of them.
Marcus.
Melissa.
Daniel.
Me.
Some were taken at restaurants.
Some outside my workplace.
Some near our house.
Some were photographs of me and Marcus.
My hands started shaking.
“How long?”
Daniel’s voice was quiet.
“Three years.”
I looked at him.
“You’ve been watching me for three years?”
“Not you.”
“Then who?”
He pointed at the photographs.
“Everyone in them.”
I pulled out another photograph.
It showed Marcus entering this hotel.
The date was three years earlier.
Another showed Melissa.
Another showed Daniel.
Then I found something that made my blood run cold.
A photograph of me.
Taken three years ago.
Before I had ever met Marcus.
I was standing outside my apartment.
Beside me was Daniel.
And across the street was Marcus.
I stared at it.
“That isn’t possible.”
“It is.”
“Why would Marcus be following me?”
“He wasn’t.”
I looked at Daniel.
“Then who was he following?”
“You.”
I shook my head.
“No.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“Do you remember what happened three years ago?”
I thought about it.
Three years ago, Daniel had started traveling more.
He said work was demanding.
I had accepted it.
I remembered feeling lonely.
I remembered the arguments.
I remembered the night he disappeared for almost twelve hours.
And I remembered waking up the next morning with no explanation.
“What happened?” I whispered.
Daniel looked away.
“That night, someone tried to get into our house.”
I stared at him.
“What?”
“You were asleep.”
“I don’t remember.”
“You weren’t supposed to.”
He reached into the envelope and pulled out another photograph.
It showed our old apartment door.
There was a small mark near the lock.
“Someone broke in.”
“Who?”
“We never found out.”
I looked at the photograph again.
Then I saw something written on the back.
417.
My heart stopped.
“This is connected to the hotel.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Daniel took a breath.
“Three years ago, I hired Marcus to investigate someone.”
“Who?”
“You.”
I stared at him.
“Why would you investigate me?”
“Because I thought you were meeting someone behind my back.”
I couldn’t speak.
Daniel continued.
“He followed you for weeks.”
“And then?”
“He discovered something.”
“What?”
“That you weren’t the person he was supposed to be following.”
I frowned.
“What does that mean?”
Daniel looked directly at me.
“Someone had been using your name.”
I felt dizzy.
“Who?”
“We don’t know.”
“Then why Marcus?”
“Because Marcus had experience finding people who didn’t want to be found.”
I stepped back.
“Wait.”
Everything began connecting in my head.
Melissa introducing me to Marcus.
Marcus already knowing Daniel.
The hotel.
The photographs.
The secret investigation.
Room 417.
But one thing didn’t make sense.
“Why did Marcus sleep with me?”
Daniel’s expression changed.
For the first time, I saw something like pain in his eyes.
“I don’t think that was an accident.”
I stared at him.
“What are you saying?”
“I think he was trying to get close to you.”
“To find out something?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did he let things go that far?”
Daniel didn’t answer immediately.
When he finally spoke, his voice was almost a whisper.
“Because someone paid him to.”
My stomach turned.
“Who?”
Daniel looked toward the door.
“That’s what I haven’t been able to prove.”
I stepped closer.
“Tell me.”
He pulled another photograph from the envelope.
It showed Marcus sitting at a table.
Across from him was a woman.
I recognized her immediately.
Melissa.
But that wasn’t what terrified me.
There was another photograph underneath it.
It showed Melissa handing someone an envelope.
The person receiving it was partially visible.
But I knew the watch on his wrist.
I had bought that watch for Daniel on our second anniversary.
I looked at my husband.
“That can’t be you.”
Daniel said nothing.
I turned the photograph over.
There was a handwritten date.
Three years ago.
And beneath it were six words:
She still doesn’t know what you are.
My hands went numb.
“What does that mean?”
Daniel finally looked at me.
“I don’t know.”
“You’re lying.”
“No.”
“You brought me here because you wanted me to see this.”
“Yes.”
“Why now?”
His expression hardened.
“Because Marcus disappeared tonight.”
I froze.
“What?”
“He left the restaurant before everyone else.”
“Where did he go?”
Daniel took out his phone.
A message was waiting.
He showed it to me.
It was from Marcus.
Daniel, she knows about Room 417 now.
Below it was another sentence.
You have until tomorrow morning to tell her the truth.
I looked at Daniel.
“What truth?”
He stared at me for several seconds.
Then he said,
“The reason Marcus was hired to investigate you wasn’t because I suspected you were cheating.”
I waited.
Daniel’s voice dropped.
“It was because three years ago, someone using your identity tried to have me killed.”
I couldn’t breathe.
And suddenly, the betrayal with Marcus wasn’t the most terrifying secret anymore.
Because if Daniel was telling the truth, then the person I thought I had been all these years…
might not have been me at all.
