Chapter 4 - Patient 317
Elena knelt in front of Noah.
“What exactly did the man say in your dream?”
Noah looked around at the flashing emergency lights.
Rain streamed from the clinic roof. Firefighters carried boxes of damaged records into the parking lot while police officers searched the surrounding woods.
“He was in a white room,” Noah said. “He kept calling my name.”
“You have never seen him before?”
“No.”
Elena touched his shoulders.
“Think carefully.”
Noah closed his eyes.
“He said, ‘Find the lion before the queen does.’”
Julian’s expression changed.
“The lion.”
Claire looked at him.
“What does that mean?”
Julian glanced toward Sebastian.
“When we were children, Michael and I used to play treasure hunts at the old Ashford estate. He called himself the lion because the family crest has a lion on it.”
Sebastian nodded slowly.
“And Vivian insisted that everyone call her the queen.”
Elena stood.
“Where is the old estate?”
“Two hours north,” Julian said. “It has been abandoned for years.”
Sebastian turned to the detectives.
“Send a team.”
One of the officers shook his head.
“We need more than a childhood clue.”
Noah tugged at Elena’s sleeve.
“There was a clock too.”
“What kind of clock?”
“A big one. It didn’t have hands.”
Julian stared at him.
“The clock tower.”
Sebastian’s old estate included a stone clock tower damaged by lightning twenty years earlier. Its hands had never been replaced.
The detective immediately radioed his team.
As officers prepared to leave, the clinic nurse approached Elena.
“There is something else you should know.”
She handed her a small audio recorder.
“Patient 317 gave this to me three months ago. He said that if anyone ever came looking for Michael Ashford, I was to give it to the woman with the silver locket.”
Elena touched the locket at her throat.
Michael had given it to her on their wedding day.
Her fingers shook as she pressed play.
Static filled the recorder.
Then a weak male voice began to speak.
“My name is Michael Ashford. At least, I believe that is my name.”
Elena covered her mouth.
Noah looked up at her.
Michael continued.
“I woke in this clinic after the crash with injuries to my head and spine. Dr. Keller told me my family was dead. He said I caused the accident after drinking. He gave me medication that made it difficult to remain awake.”
Sebastian’s face twisted with grief.
“For years, I remembered almost nothing. Then the memories returned in fragments. Elena laughing beside the lake. A silver locket. A child who had not yet been born.”
Elena began to cry silently.
“I pretended to remain confused because I heard Dr. Keller speaking with Vivian. She said the child had disappeared, but if he ever returned, everything would be lost.”
Julian stepped away as though the recording had struck him.
“My mother knew he was alive.”
The message continued.
“I do not know whether Elena survived. I do not know whether my child was ever born. But if either of you hears this, know that I did not leave willingly.”
Noah reached for the recorder.
Elena allowed him to hold it.
Michael’s final words were barely audible.
“To my child, I am sorry I was not there. I have loved you in every memory they could not take from me.”
The recording ended.
Noah pressed the device against his chest.
“I want to find him.”
“We will,” Elena promised.
A detective approached quickly.
“We traced the vehicle that removed Patient 317. It belongs to a security company contracted by Vivian Ashford.”
Julian closed his eyes.
Claire placed a hand on his arm.
For a moment, he leaned toward her.
Then he remembered the ring sitting in the ballroom and stepped back.
“You should leave,” he said quietly. “This is dangerous.”
Claire studied him.
“Are you asking because you care about me or because you are still trying to decide everything for everyone?”
Julian had no answer.
Sebastian’s convoy headed north through the storm.
Elena and Noah rode with Sebastian. Claire and Julian followed in another vehicle with two detectives.
Halfway to the estate, Sebastian received a call from the ballroom.
Vivian had escaped.
One of the guards assigned to watch her had been found unconscious in a service elevator. His uniform and key card were missing.
“She must be heading toward the estate,” Julian said over the phone.
Sebastian’s driver accelerated.
When they arrived, the old Ashford property was surrounded by darkness.
The mansion’s windows were broken.
Vines climbed the stone walls.
The clock tower rose behind the building like a black shadow against the stormy sky.
Police officers spread across the grounds.
Elena kept Noah in the car while Sebastian entered the house.
But Noah saw something the adults did not.
A light flashed three times from the tower.
Then it stopped.
Noah opened the car door.
His mother grabbed him.
“Where are you going?”
“The lion is there.”
Before Elena could stop him, a gunshot cracked through the darkness.
Everyone dropped.
The bullet shattered the windshield of Sebastian’s car.
Security rushed Elena and Noah behind a stone wall.
Another shot came from the clock tower.
Police returned fire toward the windows.
“No!” Elena screamed. “Michael might be inside!”
A voice echoed from a loudspeaker hidden somewhere in the tower.
It was Vivian.
“Bring the boy to the front door.”
Julian stepped into the rain.
“Mother!”
Claire tried to pull him back.
Vivian’s voice continued.
“Bring me Noah, and Michael leaves alive.”
Elena held her son tightly.
Sebastian stared at the tower.
“You will not touch that child again.”
Vivian laughed through the speaker.
“You still do not understand, Sebastian. Noah is not the only Ashford heir inside this estate.”
A light came on in the highest window.
A wheelchair appeared behind the glass.
Michael sat in it.
A man stood beside him with a gun.
May you like
Then Vivian spoke again.
“Choose which son you want to save.”
