CHAPTER 2 — SOMEONE INSIDE THE MANSION WANTED HER GONE
The next morning, Emily's peaceful first day ended before sunrise.
Someone had entered the servants' quarters during the night.
Her suitcase lay open.
Every piece of clothing had been thrown onto the floor.
The faded photograph of her childhood was torn in half.
Only one thing remained untouched.
The silver locket.
Emily looked around slowly.
Someone had searched her belongings...
Looking for something specific.
Mrs. Gordon blamed another maid.
The maids blamed each other.
But Emily noticed something everyone else ignored.
The room door had never been forced open.
Only someone with a master key could have entered.
Meanwhile, upstairs...
Victoria Blackwood calmly stirred her coffee.
"So?"
Her personal assistant nodded.
"Nothing except an old photograph and a necklace."
Victoria's face hardened.
"Destroy the photograph."
"It already has been."
"And the necklace?"
"We couldn't take it."
Victoria's fingers tightened around the porcelain cup.
She remembered that necklace perfectly.
Twenty years ago, she had been the last adult to see little Emily alive.
Because she had made a terrible mistake...
One she had hidden ever since.
That afternoon, Emily accidentally entered an unused music room while dusting.
The piano was covered with white sheets.
Everything smelled of forgotten years.
On top of the piano sat a small music box.
She turned the key.
A familiar lullaby filled the room.
Emily suddenly froze.
The melody...
She knew it.
Without thinking...
She quietly sang along.
Behind the door...
Richard stopped walking.
His heart nearly stopped.
That song.
Only one person had ever known every word.
His little daughter.
He slowly opened the door.
Emily immediately stopped singing.
"I'm sorry, sir."
"Where did you learn that lullaby?"
Emily hesitated.
"I... don't know."
"I've known it my whole life."
Richard stared at her.
His hands began to shake.
Before he could ask another question—
Victoria appeared.
"Richard."
He turned.
"The investors have arrived."
The moment disappeared.
Emily lowered her eyes and returned to work.
But Richard couldn't stop thinking.
That evening he secretly ordered his chief of security.
"I want everything about the new maid."
"Everything."
Across the hallway...
Victoria overheard every word.
Panic spread across her face.
If Richard discovered Emily's identity...
Everything she had hidden for twenty years would collapse.
That night...
She entered the mansion archives.
Pulled out one dusty folder labeled:
CASE 317 — MISSING CHILD.
Inside was one photograph.
Three-year-old Emily smiling between Richard and Eleanor.
Victoria stared at it.
Then slowly whispered...
"I'm sorry..."
Before feeding the entire file into the fireplace.
She believed that once the evidence disappeared...
The past would disappear too.
But she never noticed someone watching from outside the window.
Old gardener Samuel.
The only employee who had worked at the mansion for over thirty years.
The only man...
Who remembered exactly what happened the day Emily vanished.
He quietly walked toward Emily's room.
Knocked softly.
When she opened the door...
He handed her an old brass key.
"This belonged to your mother."
Emily's breathing stopped.
Samuel looked directly into her eyes.
May you like
"I think..."
"I've finally found our little princess."
