The doorknob turned slowly.
I couldn’t breathe.
Every instinct screamed at me not to open that door.
Liam shot to his feet so quickly that his chair crashed backward onto the floor. His face had gone completely pale.
“Don’t,” he whispered.
The fear in his voice sent a chill running down my spine.
Another knock rattled the house.
Then a man’s voice came from the other side.
“I know you’re in there.”
My stomach dropped.
The voice was calm.
Too calm.
Liam grabbed my arm.
“We have to leave.”
“What?” I gasped.
Before he could answer, the man spoke again.
“Emily trusted me. And if you don’t open this door right now, you’ll regret it.”
My heart nearly stopped.
Emily.
He knew Emily.
The woman who had been gone for thirteen years.
I stared at Liam.
“How does he know her?”
Liam shook his head.
“I don’t know. But Mom mentioned someone in her journals. Someone she was terrified of.”
The room suddenly felt ice cold.
“Journals?” I asked.
“You never found them?”
His question hit me like a truck.
“No.”
His eyes widened.
“Then that’s bad.”
“Why?”
Before he could answer, the man outside laughed softly.
A slow, unsettling laugh.
“You should read the letter,” he called through the door.
My pulse exploded.
How did he know about the letter?
Liam heard it too.
His eyes locked onto mine.
“He shouldn’t know that exists.”
Panic surged through me.
With shaking hands, I grabbed the envelope Emily had left behind and tore it open.
Inside was a folded letter and a faded photograph.
The second I saw the picture, my entire body froze.
It showed Emily.
But she wasn’t alone.
Standing beside her was a man I had never seen before.
And between them stood a little boy.
A little boy who looked exactly like Liam.
My hands trembled so violently I nearly dropped the photo.
“What is this?” I whispered.
Liam leaned over my shoulder.
The moment he saw the image, all color vanished from his face.
“No…” he muttered.
Then I unfolded the letter.
Emily’s familiar handwriting filled the page.
If you’re reading this, it means Liam is finally eighteen.
And it means the truth can no longer stay hidden.
The first sentence alone made my heart race.
I kept reading.
There is something I’ve hidden from everyone, including you.
The room spun.
I felt sick.
The next line made my stomach drop so hard I thought I might faint.
The man Liam believes is his father was never his father.
“What?” I gasped aloud.
Liam stared at me.
His breathing became shallow.
I continued reading.
The real father knows Liam exists. And one day, he may come looking for him.
A loud bang suddenly shook the front door.
Both of us jumped.
Then another.
And another.
The man outside wasn’t knocking anymore.
He was trying to get in.
Liam’s eyes darted toward the window.
“He found us.”
My heart pounded inside my chest.
“Who found us?”
Liam slowly pointed at the photograph in my hand.
Then he whispered words that turned my blood to ice.
“The man standing next to Mom… he’s outside.”
At that exact moment, a shadow appeared behind the frosted glass of the front door.
And a voice growled from the darkness:
“Open the door, son. We’ve been apart long enough.”
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