Chapter 2 - The Girl Behind the Wall
Victor refused to let Lily enter first.
He took a flashlight.
Marcus followed.
The second guard remained with Lily.
Eleanor demanded to come.
Victor allowed it.
Not because he trusted her.
Because frightened people often revealed more when brought near whatever frightened them.
The hidden staircase descended behind the bedroom walls.
Not into a dungeon.
Into an old service corridor.
Victor remembered blueprints from the mansion’s renovation.
Servants once moved invisibly between rooms.
Daniel had apparently reopened the passages.
Fresh wiring ran along the ceiling.
Cameras.
Microphones.
Victor stopped.
“Who installed these?”
Eleanor answered:
“Daniel.”
Victor looked at her.
“Why?”
“To watch Sarah.”
“Why?”
“Because she was watching him.”
Another answer that opened more questions.
Three knocks came again.
They followed them to a narrow room.
Inside was a small mattress.
Children’s drawings covered the walls.
Two cups.
Crayons.
A pink sweater.
No child.
Victor picked up one drawing.
Two little girls holding hands.
LILY.
EMMA.
Above them stood Sarah.
Far away stood a tall man colored entirely black.
DADDY.
Victor’s stomach tightened.
Eleanor whispered:
“This is what I was trying to find.”
“The room?”
“The drawings.”
She claimed she discovered the hidden passages two weeks earlier.
Sarah had been secretly bringing another child into the mansion.
Emma.
Eleanor believed Sarah was preparing to replace Lily.
Victor stared.
“That makes no sense.”
“I know that now.”
Important words.
Now.
Eleanor admitted she had initially interpreted the evidence incorrectly.
Sarah hiding a child.
Daniel becoming secretive.
Legal documents changing.
Lily’s toys disappearing.
Eleanor believed Sarah and Daniel were fighting over custody.
Then Sarah vanished.
Daniel told Eleanor Sarah had suffered a breakdown.
He asked Eleanor to stay and help with Lily.
Eleanor agreed.
Victor’s eyes hardened.
“And helping Lily involves pulling her hair and throwing away her belongings?”
Eleanor looked ashamed for approximately half a second.
Then defensive.
“She kept hiding things!”
“She is six.”
“I thought Sarah was using her to move evidence.”
“So you hurt her.”
“I was trying to find—”
“Stop.”
Victor’s voice chilled.
“Your reason explains your behavior. It does not excuse it.”
Eleanor went silent.
They continued.
At the end of the corridor was a steel door.
Locked.
Marcus forced it.
Inside:
medical equipment.
A hospital bed.
Straps.
Victor’s face darkened.
But the bed was empty.
On a nearby table lay Sarah’s wedding ring.
Lily’s family photograph.
And a legal document.
PETITION FOR EMERGENCY GUARDIANSHIP OF LILY HALE.
Applicant:
Eleanor Price.
Victor slowly looked at her.
Eleanor went pale.
“I never filed that.”
“Your signature.”
“Not mine.”
It looked identical.
Victor had spent forty years signing corporate contracts.
He knew how convincing forgery could be.
He did not decide yet.
Marcus found another document.
Daniel Hale requested termination of his own parental rights.
Victor’s pulse changed.
Impossible.
Or seemingly impossible.
Both documents were notarized by the same person:
Helen Ward.
Victor knew the name.
Family attorney.
Worked for the Hales for nineteen years.
Victor called her.
Disconnected.
Then Marcus found a phone beneath the bed.
Sarah’s.
One unsent voice recording.
Sarah whispered:
“Daniel thinks Emma is dead.”
Victor frowned.
Sarah continued:
“He’s wrong.”
A pause.
“And if he finds out who she really is, he’ll understand what his father did.”
Victor stopped breathing.
His father.
Him.
Sarah’s recording continued:
“That’s why I can’t let Victor see her.”
Eleanor looked at him.
Victor stared at the phone.
For the first time, suspicion moved away from Daniel.
Toward Victor himself.
Then something shifted inside the wall.
Marcus pulled back a panel.
A child was crouched inside.
Seven years old.
Thin.
Dark-haired.
Terrified.
Emma.
May you like
She looked directly at Victor.
And screamed.
