Chapter 2 - The alarm continued for exactly nineteen seconds.Then every light in the mansion went out.
Darkness swallowed the dining room.
Someone screamed.
A gunshot cracked from the eastern hallway.
Ethan grabbed Lily and pulled her behind him.
“Stay down.”
Security guards rushed through the room.
Flashlights cut through the darkness.
“Sir, stay where you are!”
Another gunshot.
This one came closer.
Ethan heard glass shatter.
Then footsteps.
Fast.
Multiple.
He knew immediately this was not a random break-in.
Someone had planned it.
Someone had timed it to the second.
He looked at Nora, who was still on her knees.
“Who knows she’s here?”
Nora was crying too hard to speak.
Ethan grabbed her collar.
“Who?”
She whispered one name.
“Victor.”
His uncle.
Ethan released her.
For seven years, Victor Blackwood had presented himself as the grieving relative who stepped in to protect the family empire after Amelia’s death.
He had attended every board meeting.
Signed every condolence book.
Sat beside Ethan at the funeral.
And never once asked what had happened to the baby.
Ethan had thought it was grief.
Now it looked different.
The emergency lights flickered on.
A red glow filled the dining room.
“Mr. Blackwood,” a guard shouted, “movement on the west side!”
Ethan looked at Lily.
“The dark room.”
He lifted her into his arms.
“Show me.”
They moved through a service corridor.
Lily pointed to an old oak door.
“That one.”
A guard kicked it open.
Inside was a narrow room with no windows.
An old mattress sat on the floor.
A metal bucket.
A camera in the corner.
And scratches.
Hundreds of them.
Ethan stepped closer.
The scratches were concentrated around one wall.
Lily buried her face against his shoulder.
“I hated this place.”
Ethan clenched his jaw.
“Who put you here?”
“A man.”
“Victor?”
Lily shook her head.
“I didn’t see his face.”
A guard examined the camera.
“It’s connected to a hidden network.”
Ethan stepped closer.
A monitor mounted inside the adjoining cabinet flickered to life.
The screen showed old footage.
Lily at age four.
Five.
Six.
Seven.
Different rooms.
Different houses.
Always watched.
Always alone.
Then a frame appeared that made Ethan stop breathing.
A woman stood beside a crib.
Blond hair.
White hospital gown.
Amelia.
The timestamp read:
7 YEARS AGO
Ethan stared.
“No.”
The image changed.
Amelia was alive.
She looked weak, thinner than he remembered, but unmistakably herself.
A man stood behind her.
The face was obscured.
Then the screen went black.
Ethan felt his knees weaken.
“Play it.”
The guard tried.
Nothing.
“Sir, it’s encrypted.”
“Break it.”
“It may take time.”
“We don’t have time.”
A crash came from downstairs.
Someone had breached the security gate.
Ethan turned to Lily.
“Where is she?”
Lily pointed toward the screen.
“In the medical room.”
“What medical room?”
“The place where Mommy is.”
Ethan grabbed her hand.
“Take me there.”
They ran deeper into the west wing.
Behind a false panel was a steel elevator.
Lily pressed one button.
The elevator descended.
One floor.
Two.
Three.
The doors opened into a hidden corridor beneath the estate.
Medical equipment lined the walls.
Oxygen tanks.
Monitors.
Locked cabinets.
At the end was a reinforced glass room.
A scarred woman lay unconscious on a bed.
Ethan stopped.
His heart seemed to forget how to beat.
Amelia.
Older.
Paler.
A thin scar crossed her cheek.
Tubes ran from her arms.
A monitor showed a steady heartbeat.
Alive.
Ethan pressed both hands against the glass.
“Amelia.”
Lily whispered beside him.
“Mommy.”
Ethan turned.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“She told me not to.”
“Why?”
“Because she said Uncle Victor would kill you.”
Behind them, a soft metallic click sounded.
Ethan turned.
A man stood at the end of the corridor.
Victor Blackwood.
Perfectly dressed.
Holding a syringe.
He smiled.
“I was wondering how long it would take you.”
Ethan stepped in front of Lily.
Victor raised the syringe.
“You should have drunk the tea.”
Ethan’s face hardened.
“You poisoned me.”
Victor tilted his head.
“No.”
He looked at Lily.
“She did.”
Nora screamed from the elevator behind them.
Victor smiled again.
“And now you’ve found your wife.”
He glanced through the glass.
“One problem remains.”
He pressed a remote.
The medical room locked.
The heart monitor began flashing red.
May you like
Victor whispered:
“She was never supposed to wake up.”
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