Chapter 18: The House of Static
Elias reached his childhood home at 3:00 AM. It was a modest bungalow in Queen Anne, currently wrapped in police tape because of his father's "accidental" death two years prior.
He moved through the house in the dark. Memory check: June 4, 1998. His father had been hammering a nail into the hallway wall. He had looked at Elias and said, "If you ever lose your way, remember the foundation, son. The things you can't see are the only things that support you."
Elias stopped at the hallway. He didn't look at the wall; he looked at the floorboards. Using a crowbar from the garage, he pried up the oak plank directly under the coat rack.
Beneath the dust was a small, lead-lined box.
He opened it. Inside was a leather-bound book—the Real Ledger. But there was something else. A digital recorder with a single sticky note: PLAY ME FIRST.
He pressed play. His father's voice, raspy and tired, filled the room.
"Elias, if you're hearing this, I'm already dead and you've finally realized that Julianna Vance isn't who you think she is. I didn't save her in 2006. She started the fire. She killed her own parents because they were going to testify. I covered it up because I loved her mother... and because Julianna threatened to tell the world what I did to keep us fed. She's been a monster since she was twelve, Elias. And she's been grooming you to be her fall guy for five years."
The floorboards creaked behind him.