Chapter 6: The Room Beneath the Mansion
Ethan stared at the message.
YOU HAVE ONE HOUR TO FIND THE ROOM.
His fingers tightened around the phone.
Then he saw the second line.
OR SOPHIE DIES.
“No.”
The word came from Vanessa.
She stood frozen beneath the flickering emergency light.
Victor was on the floor, blood spreading across his sleeve.
Ethan looked at him.
“You've been shot.”
Victor gritted his teeth.
“It's nothing.”
“Where is Michael?”
“Gone.”
“Where is my daughter?”
Victor looked at Vanessa.
“She knows.”
Ethan turned toward her.
“Then we're going home.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“No.”
“I'm done listening to that word.”
“If we go back to the mansion without knowing what we're looking for, Michael will know.”
“He already knows everything.”
“Not everything.”
Ethan stepped closer.
“What is the room?”
Vanessa lowered her voice.
“A hidden room beneath the east wing.”
“You've been in it?”
“No.”
“But you know it exists.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“Your mother told me.”
Ethan stared at her.
“When?”
“Two years ago.”
“Before you married me?”
“No.”
“After?”
Vanessa nodded.
“She found me.”
Ethan's expression hardened.
“My mother found you?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She knew Michael was watching me.”
“And she asked you to protect me?”
Vanessa looked away.
“She asked me to protect Sophie.”
Ethan's jaw tightened.
“Why?”
“Because she knew what Michael wanted.”
“What did he want?”
Vanessa whispered,
“The key.”
Ethan remembered the small metal key in the video.
“What does it open?”
“I don't know.”
“You've been lying to me all night.”
“I've been trying to keep you alive.”
Ethan's eyes flashed.
“You should have started with the truth.”
A low groan came from the floor.
Victor struggled to stand.
“Stop arguing.”
Ethan turned.
Victor pressed a hand against his wound.
“Michael isn't going to wait an hour.”
“Then we leave.”
Victor nodded.
“Take me with you.”
Vanessa immediately objected.
“No.”
Victor stared at her.
“You'll need me.”
“You're injured.”
“I know the mansion.”
“You haven't been there in years.”
“I know the tunnels.”
Ethan froze.
“Tunnels?”
Victor looked at him.
“Your father built them.”
“Why?”
“To move people without being seen.”
Ethan felt sick.
“How many?”
“Four.”
“Where do they lead?”
Victor smiled grimly.
“One leads to the ocean.”
“Another?”
“An underground garage.”
“The third?”
“An old bunker.”
Ethan's eyes narrowed.
“And the fourth?”
Victor looked at Vanessa.
“The fourth leads to the room.”
They left Blackthorne Hotel twenty minutes later.
Rain had turned into a violent storm.
Ethan drove.
Vanessa sat beside him.
Victor lay in the back seat, pressing a towel against his shoulder.
No one spoke.
Then Victor suddenly said,
“There's something you need to know.”
Ethan kept his eyes on the road.
“What?”
“Michael isn't alone.”
“Who is with him?”
Victor hesitated.
“Someone you know.”
Ethan looked in the rearview mirror.
“Who?”
Victor's expression became grim.
“Your lawyer.”
Ethan's heart sank.
“Thomas?”
Victor nodded.
“Thomas has worked for Black Meridian for years.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Ask him about the accounts.”
Ethan's hands tightened around the steering wheel.
Thomas had been his father's closest friend.
He had helped Ethan take control of Bennett Industries after Michael's death.
He had been the man Ethan trusted most.
If Victor was telling the truth...
then Ethan had spent twenty-five years surrounded by people who knew the truth.
Everyone except him.
The mansion finally appeared through the rain.
Every light was on.
Ethan slowed.
The front gate stood open.
No security guards.
No cars.
Nothing.
Too quiet.
He stopped the car.
“Stay here.”
Vanessa shook her head.
“No.”
Ethan looked at her.
“If something happens, take Sophie and run.”
“I won't leave you.”
“You've already left me once.”
Vanessa flinched.
Ethan immediately regretted it.
But he couldn't take the words back.
They entered the mansion.
“Sophie!”
No answer.
The living room was empty.
The television was still playing.
A children's cartoon.
A cup of milk sat on the coffee table.
Still warm.
Ethan's heart pounded.
“Sophie!”
Victor pointed toward the hallway.
“Basement.”
They rushed downstairs.
The basement door was open.
Ethan switched on his flashlight.
At first, there was nothing.
Then he saw it.
A small pink shoe.
Sophie’s shoe.
Lying beside the washing machine.
Ethan picked it up.
“No.”
Vanessa covered her mouth.
Victor crouched.
He examined the floor.
“Look.”
There were footprints.
Adult footprints.
And tiny footprints.
They led toward a wall.
Ethan stared.
“There's no door.”
Victor smiled.
“There is.”
He pushed a section of brick.
A hidden mechanism clicked.
The wall moved.
A dark tunnel appeared.
Ethan looked inside.
“This was here the entire time?”
Victor nodded.
“Your father built it.”
They entered.
The tunnel was narrow and cold.
Old pipes ran along the ceiling.
Every few meters, small lights flickered.
Vanessa stayed close to Ethan.
“Your mother used this tunnel.”
“When?”
“The night she disappeared.”
Ethan stopped.
“She disappeared?”
Vanessa nodded.
“She wasn't killed here.”
“What happened?”
“She escaped.”
“From Michael?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you say her body was in the room?”
Vanessa looked at him.
“Because Michael wants you to believe it.”
Ethan stared at her.
“You said her body was there.”
“I said that's what Michael told me.”
“You knew it might be a lie?”
“Yes.”
Ethan shook his head.
“You're impossible.”
“I know.”
They continued.
After several minutes, the tunnel split into two.
Victor pointed left.
“That leads to the bunker.”
“And right?”
“The hidden room.”
They went right.
A steel door appeared ahead.
There was a keypad beside it.
Ethan approached.
“What’s the code?”
Victor shook his head.
“Only your mother knew.”
Ethan looked at Vanessa.
“Do you?”
“No.”
“Then we're trapped.”
Vanessa stared at the keypad.
Suddenly, she noticed something.
“Wait.”
She touched the metal panel.
“There are four buttons with scratches.”
Ethan looked closer.
The numbers were worn.
Ethan entered them.
Nothing happened.
Victor frowned.
“Try your birthday.”
Ethan entered it.
Nothing.
Vanessa whispered,
“Your mother's birthday.”
Ethan entered the date.
The door clicked.
Everyone froze.
Then it opened.
A cold gust of air rushed through the tunnel.
Ethan stepped inside.
The room was enormous.
Shelves lined the walls.
Thousands of documents filled them.
Photographs.
Hard drives.
Bank records.
Passports.
Newspapers.
And dozens of photographs of Ethan.
As a child.
As a teenager.
As an adult.
His entire life had been documented.
Ethan slowly walked forward.
“They watched me.”
Vanessa nodded.
“For twenty-five years.”
He picked up a photograph.
It showed him at age ten.
Standing outside school.
Another showed him at seventeen.
Another showed him meeting his future wife.
Then he found a photograph of Sophie.
Taken the day she was born.
On the back was a note.
SUBJECT HAS INHERITED THE KEY.
Ethan turned toward Vanessa.
“What does that mean?”
“I don't know.”
He kept searching.
Then he found a folder marked:
MICHAEL BENNETT: PERSONAL
Inside was a single handwritten letter.
Ethan opened it.
The handwriting was unmistakably his mother's.
Ethan,
If you're reading this, then Michael has finally brought you here.
Do not trust him.
Ethan's breathing stopped.
He read on.
Your father is not the man you remember.
But neither am I.
His hands trembled.
There is something I never told you.
You were not born into this family.
Ethan stared at the page.
“No.”
Vanessa looked at him.
“What?”
Ethan couldn't speak.
He continued reading.
Your real father died before you were born.
Michael took you.
He raised you as his son because you were the only person who could unlock what he built.
Ethan's knees weakened.
The room spun.
Victor stepped forward.
“Ethan.”
He couldn't hear him.
There was another page.
The key is not a key.
It is proof.
Proof that Black Meridian belongs to you.
Ethan dropped the letter.
Vanessa picked it up.
Her eyes widened.
“He transferred ownership?”
Victor nodded slowly.
“Your father made Ethan the legal owner.”
“Why?” Ethan asked.
Victor answered quietly.
“Because Michael knew the network would eventually turn against him.”
Ethan looked around the room.
“So all of this…”
“Belongs to you.”
Suddenly, a television mounted on the wall turned on.
Static.
Then Michael appeared.
He was sitting in a chair.
Beside him stood Sophie.
Ethan rushed toward the screen.
“Sophie!”
She looked at the camera.
“Daddy!”
Ethan's heart broke.
“Are you okay?”
Sophie nodded.
Michael leaned toward the camera.
“I'm glad you found the room.”
Ethan stared at him.
“Let her go.”
“Soon.”
“What do you want?”
Michael smiled.
“The key.”
“You said it's proof.”
“Yes.”
“You want Black Meridian.”
“No.”
Michael's expression became cold.
“I want something far more valuable.”
“What?”
Michael looked at Sophie.
Then back at Ethan.
“I want my bloodline back.”
Ethan froze.
Michael continued.
“You've spent your entire life believing you were my son.”
He smiled.
“You aren't.”
Ethan stared at the screen.
“Then who am I?”
Michael leaned closer.
“You are the son of the man who destroyed my empire.”
Silence.
Then the screen went black.
A metallic click sounded behind them.
The steel door slammed shut.
Locked.
Victor rushed toward it.
“Someone activated the security system!”
Ethan turned.
The room lights changed.
Red emergency lights began flashing.
Then a voice echoed through the speakers.
Michael.
“You have forty minutes.”
Ethan looked at Vanessa.
“Forty minutes for what?”
Michael's voice answered.
“To discover who your real father was.”
A pause.
“Or Sophie dies.”
Then another sound came from inside the room.
A hidden compartment opened.
Inside was a photograph.
Ethan picked it up.
His face went completely white.
The man standing beside his mother wasn't Michael.
It was someone else.
Someone Ethan knew.
Someone still alive.
Someone he had trusted for twenty-five years.
Thomas.
May you like
And written beneath the photograph were five words:
YOUR REAL FATHER IS THOMAS.
