Chapter 10 - THE BASEMENTNobody slept that night.
Arthur wanted to confront Claire.
Claire refused to defend herself.
“I knew there was a basement,” she admitted.
Arthur stared.
“What else do you know?”
“I know your father kept people there.”
“People?”
“Yes.”
Mason asked:
“Who?”
Claire shook her head.
“Employees who discovered too much. Business partners. Anyone who threatened his empire.”
Arthur's face tightened.
“How do you know?”
“Because I saw one.”
“Who?”
“His accountant.”
Claire's voice dropped.
“He disappeared the same week our daughter disappeared.”
Elena looked at the floor.
“This family has been hiding bodies beneath this house.”
Claire corrected her.
“Not just bodies.”
“What?”
“Evidence.”
Mason found an architectural plan.
There was a sealed area beneath the mansion.
A room excluded from every official blueprint.
They entered through an old service tunnel.
The air became colder.
At the end was a steel door.
Arthur entered the chamber.
Inside were shelves filled with boxes.
Documents.
Photographs.
Hard drives.
Newspapers.
A complete archive of Vance family secrets.
Mason opened a box.
Inside was a newspaper from seventeen years earlier.
Headline:
WOMAN AND CHILD PRESUMED DEAD AFTER HOUSE FIRE
But below the headline was a handwritten note:
NO BODIES RECOVERED.
Arthur stared at it.
“They knew.”
Claire nodded.
“Your father knew I survived.”
Elena looked through another box.
She found her own childhood records.
School reports.
Medical records.
Photographs.
Even letters she had written as a child.
Someone had followed her entire life.
Then she found a sealed envelope.
It contained a DNA report.
The result:
MARIA VANCE - BIOLOGICAL DAUGHTER OF ARTHUR VANCE
Elena stared.
She had proof.
Then another report.
LUCY/MARA VANCE - MATCH CONFIRMED.
Arthur looked at her.
“Lucy?”
Claire's face froze.
Elena turned.
“What?”
Claire whispered:
“Lucy wasn't your sister.”
“What do you mean?”
“She was you.”
Elena stared.
“I had two identities.”
“Yes.”
“Then who is Evelyn?”
Claire began crying.
“Evelyn was your twin.”
The room fell silent.
Arthur staggered backward.
“My God.”
Claire covered her face.
“They separated you.”
Elena's mind raced.
The photograph.
The second voice.
The name Lucy.
The woman in the wall.
Everything connected.
Then Mason discovered one final folder.
PROJECT MIRROR.
Inside were photographs of two little girls.
Identical.
One labeled:
MARIA
The other:
EVELYN
Arthur looked at Claire.
“Why did you say one child died?”
Claire whispered:
“Because I was told Evelyn was dead.”
A noise came from behind them.
Footsteps.
Someone was inside the tunnel.
Mason drew his weapon.
“Show yourself!”
No answer.
The lights went out.
A heavy door slammed.
Arthur grabbed Elena.
Claire screamed.
Then a voice came over the intercom.
“Welcome to the basement.”
Daniel.
“You have ten minutes.”
Arthur shouted:
“What do you want?”
Daniel laughed.
“Your empire.”
“Take it.”
“No.”
A monitor turned on.
Leo appeared.
Then Victoria.
Then another woman.
A woman with Elena's face.
Older.
Bruised.
Alive.
Elena stared.
“Evelyn?”
The woman on the screen looked directly at her.
May you like
And whispered:
“Don't believe Mom.”
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