Chapter 6 - The Woman Who Should Have Been Dead
The woman looked older than Marta remembered, but there was no mistaking her eyes.
They were the same pale green eyes that had watched over Marta’s childhood, corrected her homework, and filled with fear during the final weeks before the accident.
“Mama?” Marta whispered.
The woman showed no emotion.
“Do not call me that.”
Marta stared at her.
For twenty-two years, she had carried grief like a stone inside her chest. Now the dead stood before her, alive and cold.
David leaned against the wall.
“She is not alone,” he said. “There are people in the lower chambers.”
The woman raised a small remote.
Victor immediately stepped forward.
“Elena, stop.”
She looked past Marta.
“You should have stayed away, Victor.”
“You told me you were dead.”
“That was necessary.”
Marta found her voice.
“You let me believe I buried you.”
Elena finally looked directly at her.
“I allowed you to survive.”
The words hurt more than any explanation.
Robert moved cautiously into the corridor.
“What is this place?”
Elena pressed the remote, and metal doors sealed behind them.
“This is where your father built his real company.”
Robert froze.
“My father died twelve years ago.”
Elena gave him a bitter smile.
“People connected to Meridian often die publicly before they die privately.”
Henrik’s colleague stepped toward a wall of old monitors. One screen displayed maps of the southern site. Another showed live feeds from Marta’s apartment, the meeting room, and Warehouse 19.
“You have been watching everything,” he said.
Elena ignored him.
She looked at the key in David’s hand.
“Give it to me.”
David tightened his grip.
“You said no one would be harmed.”
“I said Marta would not be harmed.”
David glanced at the blood on his shirt.
“You lied.”
Elena pressed another button.
A mechanical lock clicked somewhere in the corridor.
Victor moved in front of Marta.
“What did you find beneath the site?”
Elena’s expression changed.
For the first time, fear appeared.
“Not what. Who.”
A deep vibration traveled through the floor.
The lights flickered.
On the nearest monitor, a warning appeared:
CHAMBER PRESSURE RISING.
Robert looked toward the sealed doors.
“Who is inside the chamber?”
Elena lowered the remote.
“Someone your families promised never to release.”
Marta noticed a second symbol on the monitor, beside the warning.
It was not the Meridian triangle.
It was her family crest.
Before she could ask, David suddenly threw the key toward her.
Marta caught it.
Elena raised the remote, but Victor grabbed her wrist.
The security officer rushed forward.
Then every monitor changed at once.
A live image appeared.
Inside a circular underground chamber sat a man with white hair and a scar across his face.
Marta recognized him from the only photograph her mother had forbidden her to touch.
Her father.
He looked directly into the camera.
May you like
“Marta,” he said, as though he could see her. “Do not trust your mother.”
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