CHAPTER 4: THE WOMAN IN ETHAN'S ROOM
Victor stared at the child's drawing for nearly a full minute.
His fingers tightened around the crayon paper until it crumpled.
"Daddy."
"Me."
"Lily."
"My Other Mommy."
The fourth figure wasn't random.
Ethan had even drawn a tiny white rose in her hand.
Elena's favorite flower.
Victor slowly looked up at Lily.
"Has Ethan ever talked about this before?"
Lily hesitated.
"I... thought it was imaginary."
"Answer me."
She swallowed.
"About a month ago, he started saying a 'pretty lady' visited him after bedtime."
Victor's face darkened.
"And you didn't tell me?"
"I tried."
"You were traveling almost every week. Whenever I asked to speak with you, Serena always said you were too busy."
Victor's jaw clenched.
Serena had filtered every message reaching him.
How many other things had she hidden?
Victor immediately checked the security logs.
Every hallway.
Every staircase.
Every camera outside Ethan's bedroom.
Nothing.
No visitors.
No suspicious movement.
Yet Ethan insisted someone tucked him into bed every night.
Victor wasn't convinced.
Until Ethan quietly tugged on his sleeve.
"Daddy?"
Victor knelt.
"Yes?"
"The nice lady said you would find the secret room."
Victor's heart skipped.
"What did she look like?"
Ethan smiled.
"She smells like flowers."
"White flowers."
Victor felt a chill run down his spine.
Only one person had ever carried that scent.
Elena always wore a perfume infused with white rose and jasmine.
It had become her signature.
"What else did she say?"
Ethan frowned as if trying to remember.
"She said..."
The little boy whispered.
"Don't trust the mirrors."
Victor and Lily exchanged confused glances.
"The mirrors?" Lily repeated.
Ethan nodded.
"She said the bad people hide inside them."
Victor almost dismissed it.
Almost.
Then an old memory surfaced.
When Victor was twelve, his grandfather had forbidden anyone from removing the enormous antique mirrors throughout Blackwood Manor.
"They're older than the house itself," the old man had once said.
Victor had never questioned why.
Now...
He walked directly to the largest mirror in the mansion.
The eight-foot mirror hanging in the grand ballroom.
Its gold frame matched the style of the mysterious key.
Victor examined every inch.
Nothing.
Then Lily noticed faint fingerprints near the lower corner.
She pressed gently.
Click.
A tiny compartment slid open.
Inside lay a miniature camera.
Victor stared.
Hidden.
Perfectly concealed.
Someone had been recording the ballroom for years.
"Search every mirror."
Within minutes, security officers spread across the mansion.
The results shocked everyone.
One hidden camera.
Then another.
And another.
By midnight...
They had discovered twenty-seven surveillance devices.
Every bedroom.
Every hallway.
Every office.
Even Victor's private study.
Someone had watched the family for years.
Lily whispered,
"This house wasn't just someone's home."
"It was someone's prison."
While technicians removed the cameras, Victor reviewed old security blueprints.
One detail immediately stood out.
There was no wiring leading to the hidden devices.
Impossible.
Unless...
"They're wireless," Victor muttered.
"But where are they transmitting?"
Just then, one of his cybersecurity experts hurried inside.
"Sir."
"I traced one signal."
Victor stood instantly.
"Where?"
The technician looked confused.
"That's the strange part."
"It never leaves the mansion."
Silence.
"What?"
"The signal ends somewhere beneath the east wing."
Victor's eyes narrowed.
Another hidden room.
Meanwhile...
Miles away.
Inside an abandoned church.
Serena slowly removed her blonde wig.
Long black hair fell over her shoulders.
She wiped away layers of makeup.
The elegant fiancée disappeared.
The woman beneath looked completely different.
Older.
Colder.
A man stepped from the shadows.
"You failed."
Serena didn't respond.
"You let Victor hear the recording."
She finally spoke.
"I let him hear part of it."
The man frowned.
"What do you mean?"
She smiled faintly.
"He still doesn't know the most important sentence."
The man remained silent.
Serena looked toward a stained-glass window.
"If Victor had heard the ending..."
"He would've known Ethan isn't the only heir."
Back at the mansion...
Victor reached the east wing shortly after midnight.
Unlike the west wing, this section had been renovated only six months earlier.
Serena had personally supervised the project.
Victor suddenly remembered.
She insisted on hiring her own contractors.
He never questioned it.
Now he regretted every signature he'd placed on those contracts.
The technicians followed the wireless signal to an ordinary wall.
Nothing unusual.
Until Ethan wandered over.
The little boy pressed both hands against the wallpaper.
"Daddy."
"The lady comes through here."
Victor frowned.
He knocked on the wall.
Solid.
Again.
Solid.
Then...
One section produced a hollow sound.
Victor grabbed a crowbar.
Three powerful strikes shattered the decorative panel.
Behind it...
Steel.
A concealed elevator door.
No buttons.
No handle.
Only a fingerprint scanner.
Lily whispered,
"Who built this?"
Victor didn't answer.
Instead, he examined the scanner.
A tiny scratch across the sensor caught his attention.
Someone had used it recently.
Very recently.
Then Ethan stepped forward.
Before anyone could stop him...
He placed his tiny hand against the scanner.
Beep.
Everyone froze.
The scanner flashed green.
ACCESS GRANTED.
The elevator doors slid open.
Silence filled the hallway.
Victor slowly looked at his son.
"How..."
Ethan blinked innocently.
"The lady always lets me push the glowing hand."
No one spoke.
The implication was horrifying.
The elevator recognized Ethan's fingerprints.
Someone had programmed the system to grant him unrestricted access.
Which meant...
Whoever built this hidden network expected Ethan to use it one day.
The elevator descended far deeper than the basement.
Thirty seconds.
Forty.
Nearly a full minute.
Finally...
The doors opened.
Victor's flashlight swept across an enormous underground facility.
Rows of computer servers stretched into the darkness.
Thousands of blinking lights illuminated the chamber.
Dozens of monitors covered one wall.
Every screen displayed a different room inside Blackwood Manor.
Live.
Real-time.
The mansion had been under constant surveillance.
At the center of the room stood a single wooden desk.
On it rested an old leather journal.
Victor recognized it instantly.
It belonged to Elena.
He opened the first page.
Written in her unmistakable handwriting were the words:
If you're reading this, it means I failed to protect our children.
Victor's breath caught.
Our children.
Not our child.
He turned the page with trembling hands.
Before he could read another line...
Every monitor in the room switched off simultaneously.
The servers fell silent.
Then a distorted voice echoed through hidden speakers.
"You should have left the past buried, Victor."
A countdown appeared on the largest screen.
SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE INITIATED
05:00
Victor's eyes widened.
Someone had just activated the destruction of the entire underground facility.
May you like
And Elena's journal was still in his hands.
END OF CHAPTER 4
