🔥 CHAPTER 4 — THE MAN EVERYONE CALLED A JANITOR
Emily grabbed Ethan's arm.
"Don't go."
He stared at the dark phone screen.
The voice had sounded familiar.
Too familiar.
Not because he'd heard it often...
But because he'd spent months walking past that man without ever seeing him.
The hospital janitor.
The quiet old man who always pushed a worn cleaning cart.
Who greeted every nurse.
Who smiled at every child.
Who somehow always appeared whenever Rose had appointments.
The FBI traced the call.
Nothing.
Disposable phone.
Already destroyed.
The lead agent looked at Ethan.
"It could be a trap."
Ethan looked toward Rose.
She was awake now.
Tiny fingers wrapped around Emily's necklace.
Completely innocent.
Completely unaware.
"If there's even a chance he knows why this happened..."
"I'm going."
An hour later...
A black SUV stopped outside an abandoned train station on the edge of Manhattan.
Rain poured from the dark sky.
The station had been closed for almost twenty years.
Inside...
The old janitor sat quietly on a wooden bench.
Still wearing the same faded maintenance uniform.
Still holding the same dented lunch box.
As if he had been waiting all along.
"You came," he said gently.
Ethan stepped forward.
"Who are you?"
The old man smiled.
"My name isn't Walter."
Silence.
"My real name..."
"...is Samuel Brooks."
The name hit Ethan like a hammer.
He had seen it.
Somewhere.
Then he remembered.
It was written in tiny print beneath one of the photographs found by the FBI.
Samuel Brooks.
Guardian Seven.
"You..."
Ethan whispered.
"...you're my biological father."
The old man's eyes filled with tears.
"For thirty-two years..."
"I wanted to tell you."
"But if I did..."
"They would've killed both of us."
Ethan couldn't breathe.
"You watched me grow up?"
Samuel nodded.
"Every birthday."
"Every graduation."
"Every promotion."
"I stood in the crowd."
"You never noticed."
"Because I wasn't supposed to."
Tears rolled down Ethan's face.
"You worked as a janitor..."
"...just to stay close to me?"
Samuel smiled sadly.
"No."
"I worked there..."
"...to stay close to my granddaughter."
Ethan froze.
"Rose."
Samuel nodded.
"The moment I saw her..."
"I knew history was repeating itself."
He reached inside his old lunch box.
Removed a weathered leather notebook.
Then handed it to Ethan.
"This belonged to your grandmother."
Ethan slowly opened it.
The first page contained only one sentence.
If you're reading this... someone has already betrayed the Hartwell family again.
Every page after that described hidden accounts...
Secret board members...
Political bribery...
Illegal mergers...
And one terrifying name repeated over and over.
Project Phoenix.
Samuel's voice became deadly serious.
"Victoria wasn't the mastermind."
Ethan looked up.
"What?"
Samuel pointed to the final page.
"There has always been someone above her."
"The real owner."
"The person who created everything."
"The person who ordered your life to be stolen."
Ethan slowly turned the last page.
A single photograph slid onto the floor.
Emily picked it up.
Her face instantly turned white.
"No..."
She whispered.
"That's impossible."
Ethan took the photo from her trembling hands.
His heart stopped.
Standing beside a much younger Victoria...
Smiling confidently into the camera...
Was Emily's own father.
The man she had buried fifteen years earlier.
At least...
She thought she had.
May you like
Under the picture, someone had written five chilling words in red ink.
He's still alive. Run now.
