Chapter 4 Escape

He escaped the house they built to bury him.

Now the world knows he's alive.

But some people prefer him dead-and they're not finished.

She helped him find the truth inside.

But what's waiting outside...

Might destroy them both.

They had barely finished dinner when the second email arrived.

Subject: URGENT – National Morning Show Segment Offer.

They wanted Mason live on-air. In three days. No pre-recordings. No edits. Just him-and the world.

Samantha stared at the message, her fingers hovering over the keyboard. Mason sat across from her, quieter than usual, eyes fixed on the glowing screen. "This changes everything," she said gently.

He didn't nod. He didn't smile. Instead, he stood slowly and walked to the window. The city lights blinked back at him. "Or ends everything," he whispered.

Because going public wasn't just about the truth-it was about survival.

And the people who had tried to bury him once weren't going to applaud when he finally stood.

The next morning, Samantha noticed the white van parked across the street. No logos. No driver in sight. Just there-idling. Watching. She pulled the curtain halfway and whispered, It's starting. Mason joined her silently. His face paled further when he saw the plate. "That's the same type of van my father used for private security. Elaine might've sent it."

They didn't call the police. What would they say? Help, we're being watched by rich people who almost let me die?

Instead, Samantha made a call of her own-to the same underground contact who helped them escape. This time, her voice was sharper. "We need new names, new phones, new locations. No questions. We'll pay."

By nightfall, the van was gone. But in its place, a letter arrived. No postmark. No return address. Just one sentence, handwritten on thick card:

"The deeper you dig, the more graves you'll find."

Samantha couldn't sleep.

The van. The letter. The interview. It was all too much. So, while Mason rested, she searched again through the files he'd brought from the clinic. One folder-untouched until now-had a name she didn't recognize: Julian Carter.

She opened it. Inside were documents, old family records, and a medical transcript showing two male children born to Mason's parents-one listed as deceased at age nineteen. But the death certificate... was incomplete. No cause. No coroner. Just a stamp: "Status: Presumed."

She whispered aloud, "They never confirmed it."

Mason appeared in the doorway. "Julian," he said quietly. "My older brother. They said he drowned while abroad. No body. No goodbye. Just a funeral with an empty casket."

Samantha looked up, eyes wide. "What if he's alive, Mason? What if he's part of this?"

Mason sat beside her, staring at the half-finished death certificate.

And for the first time since they left the house-he looked truly afraid.

Mason couldn't stop pacing. His hands trembled as he held the photo they found clipped to Julian's file. It was old-grainy-but showed two boys laughing beside a lake. One was Mason. The other, taller, stronger, had the same sharp jawline and eyes. "He used to protect me," Mason said, voice distant. "When Father died, he changed. Quiet. Secretive. Then suddenly... gone."

Samantha examined the photo carefully. Behind the boys stood a car-a black luxury model with a rare emblem. She zoomed in on the license plate, barely visible. "This could help us track where it was taken," she said. "It might lead us to the last place Julian was seen."

But before they could plan further, Samantha's backup phone buzzed with a restricted call. She answered. A deep voice whispered, "Stop looking into Julian. He's not who you remember. And if you find him-he won't save you."

Then silence.

Mason lowered the photo slowly. His breath was shallow.

Because he now knew something neither of them wanted to admit:

Julian might not be dead.

But he might not be safe either.

They agreed to meet in public.

Samantha's underground contact had one condition: no phones, no laptops, no recording devices. "We'll talk like it's 1995," he had said. So they chose an old bookstore café tucked between forgotten buildings-quiet, dusty, and safe.

Mason wore a hoodie, trying to blend in. Samantha carried only a notepad. The man was already waiting when they arrived-mid-forties, shaved head, sharp eyes. "Call me Reed," he said, not offering a hand. "You asked about Julian. That's dangerous."

He slid an envelope across the table. Inside was a photo-blurry, recent, and unmistakable. Julian. Alive. Beard now, heavier, but undeniably him. "He's been living under aliases," Reed whispered. "Goes off-grid, resurfaces, then vanishes again. Some say he's in hiding. Others say he's working for someone powerful."

Mason's hands shook. "Why would he disappear if he wasn't in danger?"

Reed looked directly at him. "The real question is: what did he know that made him disappear willingly?"

That night, back at the safe house, Mason couldn't stop staring at the photo of Julian. His brother was older now, harder. The kind of face shaped by years of silence. Samantha sat across from him, spreading out the rest of the medical files from the clinic. "There's still something missing," she said. "You were supposed to be dying. But no one ever found a clear diagnosis."

She pointed to one sheet. "This scan was dated three weeks before I met you. It says your vitals were declining-but the scan is identical to the one they did last week. Same markings. Same timestamp hidden in the file properties."

Mason blinked. "You mean... they reused a scan?"

Samantha nodded. "Someone faked your decline, Mason. You weren't dying. You were being reported as dying. There's a difference."

The realization hit him like a freight train. He hadn't been failing. He'd been fed failure. And if Elaine went this far to fake his condition-what else had she erased?

The next day, Samantha received an anonymous text on the new burner phone.

"Clinic whistleblower found dead. Car crash. Sudden. No survivors."

She froze. The only person who'd quietly helped her verify Mason's altered scans had just... vanished. Mason noticed her reaction and crossed the room. "What happened?"

She showed him the screen. For a long moment, neither of them spoke.

Then Mason said, "This isn't just about hiding me. It's about silencing everyone who ever questioned why."

They began looking back through Reed's file, tracing Julian's last known location. A boarding house outside the city. Cash only. No paper trail. Reed had marked the address with one word:

"Safe?"

That question now felt more like a warning than a possibility.

Samantha started packing. "We leave at midnight," she said. "If Julian's alive, he's either running from them-or working with them."

And if it was the second?

They'd just made themselves his next target.

The drive took three hours. They avoided highways, changed cars once, and didn't speak unless necessary. When they reached the address, it was almost dawn. The boarding house looked like it hadn't been renovated since the 80s-chipped paint, flickering lights, a rusted sign that read "Ashford Rooms."

Samantha checked them in under aliases. The woman at the front desk barely looked up. "Room 11," she muttered. "No visitors after 9."

They went upstairs. Mason moved slower now, the exhaustion from travel catching up with him. But his steps were steady. Determined.

Room 11 was small-two twin beds, peeling wallpaper, and a single window facing an alley. But taped to the underside of the drawer in the bedside table, they found it.

A key.

Wrapped in cloth.

And a note. "If you've found this, he's still out there. But be careful. Julian is not who he used to be."

It wasn't signed. But the handwriting matched the letter Mason once wrote when he thought he was dying.

Someone who knew both brothers had been here. And they were afraid.

They didn't sleep. Not after that note.

Instead, Samantha scanned through every face in the boarding house as they walked the nearby streets that morning. Then she saw him-sitting alone at a café across from the building. Hood up. A scar across his left cheek. Watching. Not eating.

"Mason," she said under her breath. "That man's been there since we arrived. He hasn't moved."

Mason turned, then froze. "That's not Julian. But I've seen him before-he used to guard the house when my father was still alive. He worked for our family's private firm."

"Elaine's watching again," Samantha whispered. "She's tracking us through him."

They didn't confront the man. Instead, they bought two train tickets in the next town over, paid in cash, and left the boarding house through the fire escape. Twenty minutes later, Samantha saw the man get into a black car-following the main road toward the station.

He'd missed them.

For now.