CHAPTER 4 – The Secret Room Behind Laura's Portrait
The brass doorknob turned slowly.
Sofía stood frozen beside the fireplace, her tiny heart pounding so loudly she was sure whoever stood outside could hear it.
The library door creaked open.
It wasn't Henrique.
It wasn't Teresa.
A tall man in an expensive charcoal suit stepped inside carrying a leather briefcase.
Sofía had never seen him before.
The stranger stopped the moment he noticed the little girl.
For a brief second, surprise flashed across his face.
Then he smiled.
A perfectly polite smile.
The kind that hid something dangerous.
"Well," he said softly, "who do we have here?"
Sofía instinctively took a step backward.
"I'm looking for a book."
"So am I."
The man chuckled.
"My name is Eduardo."
He crouched until they were almost eye level.
"I work with Mr. Henrique."
Sofía nodded politely but said nothing.
Children often noticed what adults ignored.
His smile never reached his eyes.
Eduardo's gaze drifted toward Laura's portrait.
Had she opened it?
Did she know?
He couldn't risk finding out.
Just then, Henrique entered the library.
"There you are," he said warmly to Sofía. "Your mother has been looking everywhere."
Eduardo stood immediately.
"Good evening, Henrique."
"I stopped by to bring tomorrow's contract."
Henrique accepted the folder without suspicion.
"You work too much."
Eduardo laughed.
"I learned from the best."
Sofía quietly walked to Henrique's side.
As Eduardo left, he glanced back once.
Only once.
But it was enough.
Sofía felt a chill run down her spine.
...
Later that night, after the children had gone to bed, Manuela knocked gently on Henrique's office door.
"You wanted to see me?"
Henrique motioned toward the chair opposite his desk.
"I owe you an apology."
"You were accused unfairly today."
Manuela lowered her eyes.
"I understand why people suspected me."
"No."
Henrique shook his head.
"They judged you because of your circumstances."
"Those aren't the same thing."
For a moment neither spoke.
The silence wasn't uncomfortable.
It was the silence of two people who understood loss.
Finally Henrique opened a drawer and removed an old photograph.
It showed a smiling woman holding a bouquet of wildflowers.
"Laura."
"My wife."
Manuela studied the picture.
"She looks kind."
"She was."
Henrique smiled sadly.
"She believed every person deserved a second chance."
He looked directly at Manuela.
"I think... she would have invited you here before I ever did."
Tears gathered in Manuela's eyes.
"No one has spoken to me like that in a very long time."
Before either could continue, a loud crash echoed through the mansion.
Glass shattered.
Someone screamed downstairs.
...
Everyone rushed toward the grand entrance hall.
One of the antique display cabinets had fallen onto the marble floor.
Crystal pieces were scattered everywhere.
Teresa looked horrified.
"It just... collapsed."
Henrique frowned.
"That cabinet weighs hundreds of pounds."
"It doesn't collapse by itself."
While everyone examined the broken cabinet, Sofía noticed something unusual.
A single screw lay several feet away.
It hadn't broken.
It had been carefully removed.
She picked it up without saying anything.
Her father had loved fixing old furniture.
Before he died, he often explained how screws held everything together.
"This didn't fall," she whispered to herself.
"Someone made it fall."
She slipped the screw into the same pocket where she had hidden the silver key.
...
Near midnight, unable to sleep, Henrique returned to the library.
Laura's portrait filled the room with familiar memories.
He stared at it for several minutes.
Then something caught his attention.
One corner of the frame wasn't perfectly aligned.
Almost as if someone had moved it.
His heartbeat quickened.
He stepped closer.
Carefully, he pressed against the carved wooden edge.
Click.
The portrait swung outward.
Hidden behind it was the narrow steel door.
Henrique froze.
He hadn't opened it since Laura's funeral.
Only two people had ever known this room existed.
Laura...
...and himself.
Slowly, he unlocked the door with a small key hanging inside his desk drawer.
The hinges groaned as the hidden room opened.
Dust floated through the beam of his flashlight.
Shelves lined the walls.
Old journals.
Boxes.
Family albums.
Important documents.
Everything appeared untouched.
Until he reached the final shelf.
One leather journal was missing.
Henrique's expression changed instantly.
"No..."
He searched every corner.
Nothing.
The journal had disappeared.
That notebook contained Laura's private notes from the final months before her death.
But it also held something else.
Something almost no one knew.
A list of confidential meetings...
Questions Laura had begun asking about the company...
And the name of the one executive she believed could be stealing from Vasconcelos Engenharia.
Henrique's hands began to tremble.
He had dismissed her suspicions two years earlier.
Then she died unexpectedly before showing him the evidence.
Now the journal was gone.
Someone else knew it existed.
And that meant Laura's death...
...might not have been the tragic accident everyone believed.
Outside the hidden room, unseen in the darkness of the hallway, a shadow stood perfectly still.
The mysterious figure smiled after hearing Henrique whisper Laura's name.
Then the figure quietly sent a text message.
He found the secret room. Move to the next phase immediately.
Hundreds of miles away, another phone vibrated.
The reply came only seconds later.
May you like
Then neither Henrique... nor the widow... can be allowed to stay alive.
End of Chapter 4
