Chapter 1 - The Room Behind the WallLily’s knees hit the cold marble floor hard enough to send pain shooting through her legs.
But she barely felt it.
All she could see was Ethan.
The six-year-old boy was crying so hard he could barely breathe as Serena dragged him backward by the arm.
“Let him go!” Lily shouted. “He’s just a baby!”
Serena looked down at her with a smile that contained no warmth at all.
“No one believes a maid.”
Then the front doors opened.
Victor stood in the entrance.
For one frozen second, nobody moved.
His eyes traveled from Lily on the floor to Ethan’s trembling face, then to Serena’s hand wrapped around his son’s arm.
His expression changed.
Not anger.
Something colder.
“Take your hands off my son.”
Serena released Ethan so quickly that the boy stumbled.
She immediately pointed at Lily.
“She attacked Ethan!”
Victor didn’t look at her.
“Ethan.”
The child ran to him.
Victor dropped to one knee, pulling his son against his chest.
“Did she hurt you?”
Ethan shook his head.
His little fingers were clenched around Victor’s shirt.
“She tried to take me,” he whispered.
Serena’s face tightened.
“That isn’t what happened.”
Lily slowly stood.
She said nothing.
Instead, she raised her phone.
Victor looked at the screen.
Then Serena’s own voice filled the hall.
“Victor’s child must disappear before the trust activates.”
Silence.
Serena went white.
The recording continued.
“If the boy is gone, Victor loses control. Then the estate becomes mine.”
Victor slowly lifted his eyes.
“Where did you hear that?”
Serena backed away.
“Victor, I can explain.”
The mansion lights went out.
Every chandelier.
Every lamp.
Every hallway light.
Total darkness swallowed the room.
Ethan screamed.
Victor immediately wrapped one arm around him.
“Stay behind me.”
Something crashed upstairs.
Then another sound.
A door slamming.
Footsteps.
Running.
By the time the emergency lights flickered on, Serena was gone.
Victor searched the hall.
Nothing.
Only a small gold key lay on the marble floor.
He bent down and picked it up.
The color drained from his face.
Lily noticed.
“You know it?”
Victor stared at the key.
“Yes.”
His voice was barely audible.
“It belonged to Ethan’s mother.”
He turned toward the western wing.
The entire section had been sealed for six years.
Nobody was allowed near it.
Nobody.
Victor walked toward the hidden corridor.
Lily followed.
“You shouldn’t go alone,” she said.
He stopped.
For the first time, he looked directly at her.
“Why did you record Serena?”
Lily swallowed.
“Because I knew she was planning something.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
“She threatened Ethan yesterday.”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“She said, ‘Your job ends when the boy does.’”
He stared at Lily for a long moment.
Then he unlocked the door.
The hinges groaned.
Dust floated through the beam of his flashlight.
The room looked untouched.
A child’s bedroom.
A small wooden bed.
A faded blue rocking horse.
A music box.
And photographs.
Hundreds of them.
Victor stepped inside.
His breathing stopped.
The photographs weren’t of Ethan.
They were photographs of him.
Victor at business meetings.
Victor leaving the house.
Victor sleeping.
Victor carrying Ethan.
Victor talking to Lily.
Victor alone.
Victor stared at the wall.
“Who took these?”
Lily moved closer.
Then she noticed something underneath the photographs.
A large family tree had been pinned to the wall.
Victor’s name was at the center.
Ethan’s name was below it.
But beside Ethan’s name was a black X.
Lily’s eyes widened.
“Victor…”
He turned.
At the bottom of the family tree was another name.
A name both of them knew.
A man who had supposedly died twelve years ago.
Victor’s father.
Victor stepped backward.
“That’s impossible.”
Then the music box began playing by itself.
A soft melody filled the room.
Three notes.
Then three more.
Victor froze.
“That was your mother’s song,” Lily whispered.
He approached the box.
A tiny compartment opened.
Inside was a folded piece of paper.
Victor unfolded it.
His hands began to shake.
The message contained only seven words.
THE BOY IS NOT THE REAL HEIR.
Lily looked at him.
“What does that mean?”
Victor didn’t answer.
Because something had moved behind the wall.
A shadow.
Then a knock came from inside it.
Three slow knocks.
Victor grabbed the old fireplace poker.
“Who’s there?”
The knock came again.
Three times.
Lily stepped backward.
Victor pressed his ear against the wall.
A whisper came from inside.
“Victor…”
He went completely still.
The voice was a woman’s.
A voice he had not heard in six years.
His dead wife’s voice.
May you like
“Don’t trust the maid.”
And then the wall opened.
