CHAPTER 3: The Secret Hidden Beneath the Blue Room
Ethan's heart pounded as he sprinted through the mansion.
"Emma!" he shouted.
No answer.
The front gate was still locked.
Security guards swore no one had left the property.
It was as if both Emma and Victoria had vanished into thin air.
Then...
One of the housekeepers nervously approached him.
"Sir... there's something you should see."
She pointed toward the nursery inside the Blue Room.
"I've worked here for three years... but I've never been allowed inside. Today was the first time."
Ethan walked back into the room.
This time, he noticed something he had missed.
The old crib wasn't sitting flat.
One corner was slightly raised.
He knelt down and pushed it aside.
Beneath it was a hidden steel door built into the floor.
His pulse quickened.
"Get me a crowbar."
Minutes later, the lock snapped open.
A narrow staircase descended into darkness.
The air smelled damp and stale.
Someone had been hiding something for years.
Ethan switched on his phone flashlight and slowly walked down.
The basement looked nothing like the luxurious mansion above.
It resembled a prison.
A single bed.
Chains bolted into the concrete wall.
Medical equipment covered in dust.
And hundreds of photographs.
Every single one was of Sophia.
Some showed her pregnant.
Others showed her holding baby Emma.
Some had dates written across the bottom.
One photo made Ethan nearly collapse.
It had been taken only...
Three weeks ago.
Sophia was alive.
She looked exhausted but determined.
On the back of the photograph, she had written:
"If you're seeing this, I finally escaped."
Ethan's knees buckled.
For six years...
She hadn't been dead.
She had been imprisoned.
Inside his own property.
His stomach twisted with guilt.
How had he never known?
Who had helped hide this?
Then another discovery froze him in place.
A large wall was covered with newspaper clippings.
Every business rival who had mysteriously disappeared...
Every executive who had suddenly resigned...
Every witness who had changed their testimony...
Each article had one thing in common.
A red check mark.
And beneath them all was a handwritten sentence.
"Problems solved."
Ethan's breathing became shallow.
Victoria hadn't simply lied.
She had built an empire of secrets.
Suddenly...
A phone on the dusty desk began ringing.
An old landline.
No one had touched it in years.
Yet it rang.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Ethan hesitated before picking it up.
A woman's trembling voice whispered through the receiver.
"Ethan..."
His eyes filled with tears.
"Sophia?"
"I don't have much time."
"Where are you?"
"They're moving me again."
Ethan's heart stopped.
"You escaped!"
"I did... but they caught me."
"No..."
"They know Emma found you."
A loud crash echoed on Sophia's end of the call.
Men were shouting.
She whispered desperately,
"Listen carefully."
"Victoria isn't the one you're supposed to fear."
Ethan frowned.
"What do you mean?"
Sophia took a shaky breath.
"The person behind everything..."
"...is already inside your house."
The line went dead.
Silence.
Then...
The mansion lights suddenly shut off.
Every room went black.
Emergency alarms began screaming.
From somewhere upstairs...
A child screamed.
"Daddy!"
Ethan ran toward the staircase.
But before he reached the top...
He felt the cold barrel of a gun press against the back of his head.
A familiar male voice quietly whispered,
"Turn around, Mr. Blackwell."
May you like
"You've been looking at the wrong villain this entire time."
TO BE CONTINUED...
