Chapter 5: The Man Outside Knew What Noah Had Forgotten
Chapter 5: The Man Outside Knew What Noah Had Forgotten
Nobody moved.
The man outside stood behind the glass door, partially hidden by the evening shadows.
I couldn’t see his face.
But I could see the gun in his right hand.
Lauren grabbed my arm.
“Don’t go near the door.”
Brandon quietly moved toward the kitchen.
I whispered,
“Where are you going?”
“To get something.”
“Like what?”
He opened a drawer.
Then stopped.
“Never mind.”
The man outside knocked.
Three slow knocks.
Lauren flinched.
Then he knocked again.
Three times.
My eyes moved to the folded paper on the table.
The handwriting.
The same handwriting I’d seen beneath my windshield that morning.
I suddenly remembered something else.
A door.
Three knocks.
Dallas.
Ethan opening it.
And a voice saying,
“I’m not here to hurt you.”
I looked at Lauren.
“You know him.”
She shook her head.
“No.”
“You recognized the knock.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Because Ethan used to knock that way.”
Brandon stared at her.
“That doesn’t make sense.”
Lauren didn’t answer.
The man outside spoke.
“Noah.”
My blood went cold.
His voice sounded familiar.
“Open the door.”
I stepped closer.
“Who are you?”
A pause.
Then:
“Someone who tried to save you.”
Lauren whispered,
“Noah, don’t.”
I ignored her.
“What happened in Dallas?”
The man outside sighed.
“You really don’t remember.”
“Tell me.”
“You weren’t the victim.”
Lauren looked at me.
Brandon stopped breathing.
I stared at the man.
“What does that mean?”
“You were the witness.”
The man lowered his gun slightly.
“Ethan was the one they wanted.”
My mind flashed.
The black folder.
The parking garage.
Ethan shouting.
And me standing beside him.
I remembered another detail.
There had been a fourth man.
Someone behind me.
I turned toward Brandon.
“You weren’t the fourth person in the garage.”
He shook his head.
“No.”
“Then who was?”
Nobody answered.
The man outside did.
“Marcus.”
Lauren’s face went white.
I turned toward the door.
“Marcus Hayes?”
“Yes.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because Marcus knows you remembered.”
I looked at Brandon.
“You said Marcus was protecting the ledger.”
“I thought he was.”
“You were wrong.”
The man outside stepped closer to the glass.
“Brandon was wrong about a lot of things.”
Brandon’s expression hardened.
“Who are you?”
The man didn’t answer.
Instead, he reached into his jacket and pulled out a photograph.
He held it against the glass.
It showed Ethan.
Alive.
Standing beside a car.
The date printed in the corner was six months after the supposed accident.
I stared at it.
“No.”
Lauren covered her mouth.
Brandon whispered,
“That can’t be real.”
“It is,” the man said.
I stepped closer.
“Where is he?”
“He’s dead now.”
“When?”
“Two years ago.”
I felt dizzy.
“Then why did everyone tell me he died six years ago?”
“Because they needed you to believe it.”
I turned toward Lauren.
“You knew.”
She didn’t deny it.
“You knew Ethan survived.”
“Yes.”
“For two years?”
“Yes.”
“And you still married me?”
Her voice broke.
“I married you because I loved you.”
“Or because someone told you to watch me?”
She stared at me.
That hesitation hurt more than anything she could have said.
Brandon stepped forward.
“Noah, she didn’t marry you because of Redwood.”
“Then why?”
“Because Ethan asked her to.”
I looked at Lauren.
She nodded.
“He told me that if you ever recovered your memory, you would need someone you trusted.”
I laughed.
“You were supposed to be the person I trusted?”
“Yes.”
“And all this time?”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“By lying to me?”
“Yes.”
The man outside suddenly looked over his shoulder.
His posture changed.
“We don’t have much time.”
I looked toward the road.
Two headlights appeared at the end of the street.
A black SUV.
Brandon immediately locked the back door.
“That’s them.”
The man outside lowered his voice.
“Open this door now.”
“Why should I trust you?”
“You shouldn’t.”
He looked directly at me.
“But you should trust the person who sent me.”
“Who?”
He reached into his pocket.
Then he threw a small object through the partially opened window.
It landed on the kitchen table.
A wedding ring.
I stared at it.
Lauren gasped.
“That belongs to Ethan.”
I picked it up.
There was something engraved inside.
Three words.
You remember everything.
My fingers began shaking.
Then I noticed a tiny mark beside the engraving.
A symbol.
I had seen it before.
On the corner of the ledger.
On the note beneath my windshield.
And on the folder from Dallas.
I looked at Brandon.
“What is this symbol?”
He didn’t answer.
The man outside did.
“It’s not Redwood’s symbol.”
I turned toward him.
“Then whose is it?”
He looked at Lauren.
She closed her eyes.
“Tell him.”
Lauren shook her head.
“Tell him what?”
“That the company wasn’t the organization behind everything.”
She slowly opened her eyes.
“The company was only a front.”
“For what?”
She looked at me.
“For a private network.”
“What kind of network?”
She whispered,
“One that has people inside banks, police departments, corporations…”
She paused.
“And government offices.”
The SUV was getting closer.
The man outside raised his gun again.
“You need to leave.”
I looked at Lauren.
“I’m not going anywhere until she tells me the whole truth.”
Lauren stared at me for several seconds.
Then she reached for my hand.
“Okay.”
She took a breath.
“Six years ago, Ethan discovered something much bigger than Redwood.”
“What?”
“He discovered that the people running it had been watching you long before you ever met me.”
I froze.
“Why me?”
Lauren’s eyes filled with tears.
“Because your father wasn’t who you thought he was.”
The room went silent.
I stared at her.
“My father died when I was twelve.”
“I know.”
“What does he have to do with this?”
Lauren looked toward the man outside.
He gave her a single nod.
Then she whispered the sentence that changed everything.
“Your father helped create the network.”
The black SUV stopped outside.
Four doors opened.
And for the first time in six years, I remembered the last thing my father ever said to me.
If they ever tell you I’m dead, don’t believe them.
