PART 14 — THE TRUTH IN THE SAFE
The continuous tone of the monitor cut through the hospital room like a razor blade. The world stood still for a fraction of a second.
"No! Dad! No!" Lucas screamed, running to the wall and pressing the alarm button. Within seconds, doctors and nurses rushed into the room. They pushed us aside, began chest compressions, and shouted medical terms over one another.
Lucas pulled me along into the hallway. We stood there in the cold, white hospital corridor, holding hands frantically and listening to the chaos behind the closed door. My thoughts raced in a wild whirlpool. You know this person better than you think. Who could that be? Who from our past knew about everything, who had possessed the power to manipulate our lives for thirty years, and who had just sent this letter?
After an eternity, the doctor came out. He slowly shook his head, his gaze full of pity.
"I'm sorry... we tried everything. His heart couldn't take anymore."
The words barely penetrated me. Willem was gone. Really gone this time. Without having had the chance to tell the whole story.
But his last words echoed in my head: "In the safe at home... in the second drawer all the way at the back... lies the proof. In it is the name... of the one who has been hunting us for thirty years. And believe me... you know this person better than you think."
Lucas looked at me, his eyes burning with tears, but they were full of determination.
"We're going home, Mom," he said in an iron voice. "We're cracking that safe. Now."
An hour later we were back in the living room of my house. The house that had been a prison of lies for thirty years. Lucas had fetched tools from the shed and knelt before the old wooden cabinet under the stairs where Willem used to keep his papers.
With a loud crash, Lucas broke the lock of the secret drawer in the back of the cabinet. A small, dusty black suitcase appeared.
Our hands trembled as we placed the suitcase on the kitchen table and flipped it open. Inside there was no money and no old photos, only a single document. An official certificate, accompanied by a handwritten letter with a name at the end that made me cry out in disbelief.
A name that couldn't possibly be right.
Lucas read the name and stepped back, dead pale, hand over his mouth.
"That... that can't be..." he whispered.
But the signature stood there in black and white. And at that exact moment, we heard the front door open outside. Slow, familiar footsteps walked into the hallway, followed by a soft, familiar voice calling out:
"Clara? Lucas? Are you home? I thought you might could use a little company..."
The blood froze in our veins. Because the voice in the hallway... belonged to someone we thought had remained faithful to us for years, but who now, at this crucial moment, entered the room with an ice-cold smile on their face.
