CHAPTER 2 — The Locked Room
The funeral ended in chaos.
Guests forgot about Margaret's coffin.
Everyone followed Alexander upstairs.
Even the lawyers.
Even the board members.
Even Victoria.
The little boy introduced himself.
"My name is Noah."
Alexander couldn't stop looking at him.
The same eyes.
The same jawline.
The same habit of clenching his fists when nervous.
Impossible.
Yet...
unmistakable.
Alexander led Noah to the third floor.
At the end of the hallway stood a heavy oak door.
Locked for twenty years.
No servant had ever entered.
Margaret had forbidden it.
"No one opens this room."
Ever.
Alexander removed an old brass key from his pocket.
His hands trembled.
The lock clicked.
Dust filled the air.
Everything inside had been preserved exactly as it was decades ago.
Emily's paintings.
Her books.
A guitar Alexander had given her on her nineteenth birthday.
Victoria gasped.
"You kept another woman's room?"
Alexander ignored her.
Noah quietly walked to an old wooden desk.
Without hesitation...
he opened the third drawer.
Everyone froze.
Alexander whispered,
"How did you know that drawer existed?"
Noah answered,
"My mom told me."
Inside the drawer...
lay dozens of unopened letters.
Every single one addressed to Alexander.
Every single one returned before delivery.
The first letter read:
Alexander... I'm pregnant.
The second:
Someone is following me.
The third:
Your mother offered me ten million dollars to disappear. I refused.
Alexander nearly collapsed.
"No..."
"No..."
"My mother would never..."
Then came the final letter.
Its date...
was only three weeks before Emily died.
Alexander opened it with shaking hands.
"If you're reading this, I couldn't protect Noah anymore."
"The danger was never your family fortune."
"It was your father's secret."
Victoria frowned.
"What secret?"
Before anyone could answer...
a loud explosion shattered every window in the mansion.
Glass rained across the room.
Security alarms screamed.
Smoke rose from the front gate.
A bodyguard burst inside.
"Mr. Whitmore!"
"They're here!"
Alexander stared.
"Who?"
The guard swallowed hard.
"The people your father spent thirty years hiding from."
May you like
Noah quietly whispered...
"They found us."
