Chapter 3 - THE NAME ON THE PHONEArthur stared at the screen.
LUCY.
The same name written on the photograph.
The same name attached to the necklace.
A name he had spent seventeen years trying to forget.
His hand trembled.
“Answer it,” Elena whispered.
Arthur pressed the button.
“Lucy?”
Static.
Then a woman's voice.
“Dad.”
Arthur stopped breathing.
The police officer nearest him immediately reached for his radio.
“Can you trace this?”
The woman continued.
“You shouldn't have opened that wall.”
Arthur swallowed.
“Where are you?”
Silence.
“Lucy, where are you?”
“You know.”
“No. I don't.”
“You always knew.”
Arthur's expression twisted.
“I thought you were dead.”
A bitter laugh came through the speaker.
“You believed what they told you.”
“Who?”
The line went dead.
Arthur stared at the phone.
Victoria moved toward the staircase.
An officer blocked her.
“Where are you going?”
“I need air.”
“You're not leaving.”
Victoria's eyes moved to Arthur.
For the first time, she looked truly trapped.
The police searched the east wing.
They found no person.
But they found another hidden entrance.
It was behind a bookshelf in the old library.
Elena knew that bookshelf.
She had dusted it countless times.
One officer pulled the third shelf.
Nothing happened.
The fourth.
Nothing.
Then the seventh.
Click.
The entire shelf shifted.
A narrow doorway opened.
Arthur stared.
“Who built this?”
Victoria whispered, “It doesn't matter.”
Arthur looked at her.
“It matters now.”
Inside the hidden passage were old electrical cables, pipes and narrow stairs leading down.
The air smelled damp.
The walls were covered with faded scratches.
Someone had written dates.
Then stopped.
Elena shone her flashlight over the last line.
Beneath it, someone had scratched:
SHE CAME BACK.
Arthur stepped backward.
“What does that mean?”
No one answered.
At the bottom of the stairs they found a small room.
There was a chair.
A table.
An old camera.
And a wall covered with photographs.
Arthur's blood ran cold.
Every photograph showed his family.
Arthur.
Victoria.
Leo.
And Elena.
Elena stared at her own photograph.
Taken through a window.
While she was sleeping.
Her hands went cold.
“Someone's been watching me.”
A police officer examined the camera.
“These are surveillance images.”
Arthur looked at Victoria.
“Why would anyone spy on my housekeeper?”
Victoria didn't speak.
Then Elena noticed one photograph pinned lower than the others.
It showed Victoria speaking to a man outside the mansion.
The man's face was turned away.
But Elena recognized his jacket.
It belonged to the groundskeeper.
Thomas.
She immediately turned.
“Where is Thomas?”
Arthur frowned.
“He left this morning.”
“Did he?”
“What are you saying?”
“I saw him near the east wall yesterday.”
An officer searched the groundskeeper's room.
Thomas was gone.
His wardrobe was almost empty.
His passport was missing.
His bed had been stripped.
Someone had planned his disappearance.
Inside his room, police found a locked suitcase.
They forced it open.
Inside was a stack of documents.
Birth certificates.
Medical records.
Bank statements.
And one envelope addressed to:
ELENA MARLOWE
Elena stared at her name.
Arthur looked at her.
“Why would Thomas have a file on you?”
She didn't know.
Her hands shook as she opened the envelope.
Inside was a single photograph.
A young woman.
Standing in the Vance mansion.
Holding a baby.
Elena stared at the woman.
She had never seen her before.
But something about her face felt familiar.
Then she noticed the handwritten note beneath the photograph.
You were never supposed to work here.
Elena's heart stopped.
“What does this mean?”
Arthur looked at the photograph.
Then his expression changed.
“Where did you get this?”
“It was in Thomas's suitcase.”
Arthur took one step backward.
“You can't show this to anyone.”
“Why?”
“Because…”
He stopped.
The mansion lights suddenly went out.
Darkness swallowed the room.
A scream came from upstairs.
Leo.
Arthur ran.
Elena followed.
The flashlight beam shook across the staircase.
Leo was standing at the top.
Terrified.
“There was someone in my room.”
“Who?”
Leo pointed toward the corridor.
“I don't know.”
Arthur grabbed him.
“Where?”
Leo whispered:
“He looked like Mom.”
Arthur froze.
Victoria appeared behind them.
“What did he say?”
Leo pointed at her.
“No.”
He began shaking.
“He looked like the woman in the picture.”
Arthur's eyes widened.
“What woman?”
May you like
Leo looked toward the wall.
“The woman in Daddy's hidden room.”
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