“They trafficked us under the gym,” he said.“Under your feet.”
Her vision blurred.“Oh no,” she whispered.Poor Aiden.
“They chained us down here,” he said, eyes burning now.“They told us it was our fault.That no one wanted us.No one would miss us.That no one upstairs cared enough to hear us scream.”
Her breath fractured, coming apart piece by piece.
“I was five,” he went on.“They kept us underground most of the time, except for one room.”
Her pulse roared in her ears.
“One room upstairs,” he said softly.“This one.”
Chloe’s gaze flicked around again, dread bubbling up in her stomach.
“They brought us here sometimes to remind us of what we didn’t deserve.A real bed and a window.Light.”His jaw clenched.“I learned how to be quiet in this room.How to disappear.”
Tears slid down her face before she could stop them.“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.“Aiden, I’m so sorry.I would have helped you.”
“You helped yourself,” he snapped.“You took the building and then you erased everything.You turned my hell into your success.”
The words cut deep because they echoed the punishment she’d already handed herself.
She swallowed hard.“That doesn’t make this right.”
“No,” he agreed calmly.“But it makes it fair.”
Her heart slammed painfully against her ribs.“The others,” she said, voice shaking.“The people who were hurt.Robin.Sandy.”
Something flickered in his eyes.
“Robin saw me,” he said simply.“She came in early.She went looking around.I couldn’t let her talk.”
Chloe’s breath hitched.“You killed her.”
He didn’t deny it.“She wasn’t supposed to be there.Neither was Erickson.”
She gasped.Joel Erickson had died of a drug overdose ...hadn’t he?“You killed him?”
“He saw me too,” Aiden said.“In the wrong place.At the wrong time.”
A sob broke free despite her efforts to hold it back.“Sandy?”
“She was going to fire me,” he said.“I missed too much work because I was busy watching you.Planning.Making sure you didn’t get too comfortable.”
Her stomach churned violently.
“The fire was a warning,” he added.“Just like the drone.”
Her head snapped up.“The drone?”
He nodded once.“It was easy since I was already piloting the other two for Sandy.All I had to do was add another.Nobody knew about it.I wanted you to feel how close it could come.How easily it could end.But Evan found out about it, so he had to die.”
The room tilted.
“I left you the chain links,” he said.“Chains were all I had when I was down here.They reminded me I was real.That what happened wasn’t a nightmare.I wanted you to see them.To remember.”
Chloe felt hollowed out, carved clean by the weight of it all.
