Chapter 2 - The Woman Who Was DeadDaniel didn't move.
Eleanor didn't breathe.
Sarah watched both of them from the floor, trying to understand what could possibly scare these two people more than a dying woman with a baby screaming in her arms.
The voice outside came again.
“Open the door.”
Daniel whispered, “It's impossible.”
Eleanor's jaw tightened.
“Apparently not.”
“Her car went over the cliff.”
“You think I don't remember?”
“The body was burned.”
“I remember that too.”
Sarah's heart pounded.
She looked toward the front door.
“Who is she?”
Eleanor ignored her.
Daniel looked down at Sarah.
“Stay where you are.”
Sarah almost laughed.
He still thought he was in control.
Then Leo suddenly stopped crying.
His tiny fingers tightened around the silver chain hanging from Sarah's neck.
Sarah looked down.
The pendant was shaped like a small key.
Eleanor saw it.
Her expression changed instantly.
“Where did you get that?”
Sarah froze.
“What?”
“The necklace.”
Sarah touched it.
“My mother gave it to me.”
“When?”
“Before she died.”
Eleanor walked down the final step.
“Take it off.”
Sarah moved backward.
“Why?”
“Take it off.”
“No.”
Daniel looked at Eleanor.
“What is that?”
Eleanor didn't answer.
Three knocks came again.
This time louder.
THUD. THUD. THUD.
“Eleanor!”
The woman outside sounded impatient now.
“I am done waiting.”
Daniel walked toward the door.
Eleanor caught him.
“If she has the recording, we're finished.”
“You said she didn't have anything.”
“I said I didn't know.”
Sarah's mind raced.
Her mother had died six months after giving her the pendant.
She had never explained the strange key.
Sarah had assumed it was sentimental.
Now Eleanor looked at it as if she had seen a ghost.
The front door suddenly shook.
Daniel jumped.
“Open it!” the woman shouted.
“Police are coming!” Daniel yelled.
A pause.
Then a soft laugh.
“Oh, Daniel.”
Her voice became colder.
“I called them.”
Daniel stared at Eleanor.
Sarah's stomach dropped.
The sound of sirens rose somewhere in the distance.
Not one vehicle.
Several.
Eleanor turned toward the hallway.
“There's another way out.”
Daniel nodded.
They began moving.
Sarah watched them disappear toward the west wing.
For a moment she almost tried to stand.
Pain exploded through her ribs.
She gasped.
Then she remembered Leo.
She crawled.
Slowly.
Toward the staircase.
The front door opened.
A woman stepped inside.
Sarah stopped.
The woman was in her late sixties.
Gray hair.
Black coat.
A scar ran from her left temple to her jaw.
Sarah had never seen her before.
But Eleanor had.
Because the moment the woman entered the mansion, Eleanor shouted from the hallway.
“Margaret!”
The woman smiled.
“Hello, sister.”
Sarah's blood turned cold.
Sister?
Eleanor's sister had died eleven years ago.
At least that was what everyone had told Sarah.
Margaret looked at Sarah.
Then at Leo.
Her expression softened.
“Is that him?”
Sarah couldn't speak.
Margaret walked closer.
“Leo?”
The baby reached toward her.
Margaret stopped.
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Oh, Nathan…”
Sarah's breath caught.
“What did you call him?”
Margaret looked at her.
“I called him by his real name.”
Sarah stared.
“Leo is his real name.”
Margaret shook her head.
“No.”
She reached into her coat and pulled out an old photograph.
Her hand trembled.
“This child was never supposed to be Daniel's.”
Sarah stared at the picture.
It showed a younger Eleanor standing beside a handsome man in a military uniform.
And behind them…
a little boy.
The boy wore the exact same silver key pendant Sarah was wearing.
Margaret looked at Sarah.
“That key opens the room where the truth was hidden.”
Behind them, the mansion door slammed shut.
Daniel stood in the hallway.
Holding a gun.
“Not another word,” he said.
Margaret turned slowly.
And smiled.
“Daniel…”
She looked at the gun.
Then at Sarah.
Then at Leo.
“Do you still remember what happened to your father?”
Daniel's hand began to shake.
Because he knew exactly what room Margaret meant.
The room that had been locked for eleven years.
The room no one was supposed to enter.
May you like
The room containing the one thing Eleanor had spent a decade trying to destroy.
The original evidence.
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