Chapter 1 - Aunt Tessa Was Not Alone
As I carried Lily into the crowded backyard, her arms remained locked around my neck and her swollen cheek rested against my chest.
The birthday music was still playing. Pastel balloons floated above the garden tables. A pink cake waited beneath the white canopy, surrounded by wrapped gifts and untouched glasses of champagne.
Yet every guest had gone silent.
My sister, Tessa, approached us with a wineglass in one hand. Her blonde hair was perfectly curled, and her elegant summer dress did not have a single wrinkle.
She laughed lightly.
“Relax, Daniel. It was just a joke.”
I looked down at my four year old daughter.
Finger shaped marks darkened her upper arm. A red swelling spread across her cheek. Her floral dress was stained with grass, and one of her small shoes was missing.
The shock inside me became something cold.
“Who did this to my daughter?”
Tessa’s smile tightened.
“She had a tantrum. I tried to calm her.”
She reached toward Lily as though she had every right to touch her.
Lily recoiled so violently that her elbow struck my chest.
I reacted before my mind caught up.
My palm struck Tessa across the face.
She stumbled backward and fell onto the grass. Her wineglass shattered beside the cake table.
Gasps moved through the party.
My mother rushed between us.
“Daniel, have you lost your mind?”
“She is hurt.”
“She is a child,” Mother snapped. “Children fall. Do not destroy your niece’s birthday over nothing.”
I tightened my hold on Lily and moved toward the side gate.
Mother blocked me.
“You are not leaving after attacking your sister.”
I stepped forward until she was forced to move.
“You will never come near Lily again.”
Tessa rose slowly from the grass. The smugness had disappeared from her face, but not the anger.
“You have no idea what happened.”
“Then explain the marks.”
“She was somewhere she was not supposed to be.”
Lily’s fingers dug into my collar.
I felt her breathing change.
Her wet eyes moved past Tessa toward the mansion’s patio doors.
My older brother, Marcus, stood there in a gray suit.
He had not joined the argument. He had not asked why Lily was crying. He had not even moved when I struck our sister.
He simply watched us with one hand hidden inside his pocket.
Lily began trembling again.
“Daddy.”
I followed her stare.
“What is it, sweetheart?”
Her voice broke into a sob.
“Aunt Tessa wasn’t alone.”
Marcus’s face became perfectly still.
My mother turned toward him, and for one brief second, I saw panic move between them.
“Lily is confused,” Marcus said.
My daughter lifted one shaking hand and pointed directly at him.
“He locked the door.”
The guests nearest the patio stepped away.
Marcus removed his hand from his pocket.
A deep scratch crossed his wrist.
Lily had blood beneath two of her fingernails.
I started toward him.
Mother grabbed my arm.
“Daniel, stop. Think about what you are doing.”
“I am thinking about my daughter.”
Marcus glanced toward the open patio door.
The movement was small, but I saw it.
He was checking whether someone inside the house had heard us.
“Where did you take her?” I asked.
“I did not take her anywhere.”
Lily buried her face against my neck.
“The little room,” she whispered. “The room where Mommy was crying.”
My wife, Megan, had been dead for nearly two years.
A car had forced her off a mountain road during a storm. The vehicle burned before rescuers could reach it. I had identified her through her wedding ring and the gold necklace she wore every day.
There was no possible way Lily could have heard her voice inside my mother’s mansion.
Marcus began backing toward the patio.
Tessa whispered his name.
Then the entire house lost power.
The birthday music died. The patio doors locked automatically. Somewhere inside the dark mansion, a woman screamed.
May you like
Marcus turned and ran.
Continue to the next part: Daniel follows his brother into the mansion and finds the hidden room Lily was never supposed to see.
