Chapter 4 - THE ROOM BEHIND THE WALLClara Carter was missing.
Her room was empty.
Her phone lay on the bed.
Her coat was gone.
So was Emma.
For the first time since the attack, Alejandro felt something colder than fear.
Panic.
He ordered every gate sealed.
“Find the girl.”
Victor nodded.
“And Clara?”
“Both.”
Alejandro entered the servants' corridor.
He had never walked this part of the house before.
It was narrower than the main hallways.
Old.
Poorly lit.
The Moretti mansion had been built in 1911, and much of the service wing had been left untouched.
Emma's room was at the end.
Alejandro opened the door.
The pink rabbit backpack was gone.
He looked under the bed.
Nothing.
Then he saw the wall.
There was a child-sized handprint in the dust near the bottom.
Alejandro frowned.
He pressed it.
A panel moved.
Behind it was a narrow opening.
Victor stepped forward.
“Boss…”
Alejandro pushed the panel open.
A hidden passage stretched into darkness.
Someone had built another world inside his house.
The corridor led to an old room beneath the mansion.
Inside were monitors.
Hard drives.
Photographs.
Documents.
And hundreds of images of Alejandro.
Sleeping.
Eating.
Meeting people.
Leaving the house.
Everywhere.
Victor stared at the walls.
“What the hell is this?”
Alejandro picked up a photograph.
It showed him entering the study six months earlier.
Another showed Valentina leaving the east wing.
Another showed Thomas carrying a locked briefcase.
Then Alejandro saw something that made him stop.
A photograph of Emma.
Taken the day she arrived at the estate.
She was two years old.
Standing beside Clara.
Someone had been watching them from the beginning.
Victor found a computer.
The machine was still warm.
“They were here recently.”
Alejandro walked to the desk.
A small red light blinked.
Live feed.
He pressed the monitor.
The screen opened.
A camera inside the staff-room hallway showed Clara.
She was tied to a chair.
Emma stood beside her.
A masked man held a gun to Clara's head.
Alejandro's jaw tightened.
“Where?”
Victor tracked the signal.
“Basement level.”
Alejandro immediately grabbed his weapon.
“No.”
Victor blocked him.
“You nearly died six hours ago.”
Alejandro looked at him.
“I nearly died because I trusted everyone.”
He pushed past.
They descended into the lower level.
The basement had been abandoned for years.
Concrete walls.
Old pipes.
No windows.
A single light flickered at the end of the corridor.
Alejandro raised his weapon.
“Clara!”
No answer.
He opened the door.
The room was empty.
Only the chair remained.
And Emma's pink rabbit backpack.
Alejandro picked it up.
Inside was a folded piece of paper.
He unfolded it.
Three names were written.
VALENTINA MORETTI
THOMAS REED
CLARA CARTER
But the third name had been crossed out.
Underneath was another name.
ALEJANDRO MORETTI
Victor stared at the paper.
“What does that mean?”
Alejandro didn't answer.
He turned it over.
On the back was a photograph.
An old family portrait.
Alejandro.
Valentina.
Their parents.
And a fourth child.
A little boy standing beside them.
Victor frowned.
“Who is that?”
Alejandro's face drained of color.
“My brother.”
Victor looked at him.
“You had a brother?”
Alejandro whispered one sentence.
“He died twenty-seven years ago.”
A sound came from behind them.
A soft child's laugh.
Alejandro spun around.
Nobody.
May you like
Then a voice came from the darkness.
“Not all dead people stay dead.”
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