Chapter 2 - The Door Behind the Pantry
I handed Lily to Mrs. Harper, our elderly neighbor, and told her to call the police.
Mother seized my wrist.
“You cannot bring the police into this.”
I looked at her.
“My daughter has bruises on her body.”
“They will misunderstand.”
“Then give them the truth.”
She released me.
Tessa stood beside the broken wineglass, one hand pressed against her cheek. Her anger had been replaced by fear.
“Do not go inside,” she said.
“Why?”
She looked toward Marcus.
He had already disappeared beyond the patio doors.
The emergency lights flickered on inside the mansion, covering the hallways in a faint red glow.
I entered through the kitchen.
Several guests followed until my mother shouted for them to remain outside. Nobody listened to her. They gathered near the doorway, whispering as I crossed the marble floor.
“Marcus!”
No answer.
The kitchen smelled of birthday cake and roasted meat. Half prepared serving trays covered the counters. A door near the pantry swung slowly on its hinges.
I had been inside my mother’s home hundreds of times.
I had never noticed that door.
It appeared to lead into an ordinary storage closet, but one shelf had been pushed aside, revealing a narrow passage behind it.
A child’s missing shoe rested on the floor.
Lily’s shoe.
I picked it up and entered.
The passage descended beneath the house. The walls were unfinished concrete. New electrical cables ran beside old water pipes, leading toward a steel door at the bottom.
The door had scratches near the handle.
Some were at the height of an adult’s hand.
Others were low enough to have been made by a child.
“Marcus!”
A mechanical lock clicked somewhere ahead.
I ran.
The steel door closed just before I reached it. I struck the keypad, but the screen remained dark.
Footsteps approached behind me.
Tessa appeared in the passage.
“Move away from the door.”
“Open it.”
“I cannot.”
“You brought Lily down here.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“I stopped Marcus from hurting her worse.”
“You held her tightly enough to leave fingerprints.”
“He told me she had seen something.”
“What?”
Tessa looked back toward the stairs.
“He said if she repeated it, all of us would lose everything.”
“I already lost Megan.”
Her face changed when I said my wife’s name.
I stepped closer.
“What is inside that room?”
Before she answered, a speaker above the door crackled.
A woman’s weak breathing filled the passage.
Then I heard a voice I had replayed in old videos every night for almost two years.
“Daniel?”
My knees nearly failed.
“Megan?”
Tessa covered her mouth.
The speaker hissed.
“Daniel, do not let Marcus take Lily.”
I struck the door until blood appeared across my knuckles.
“Megan, where are you?”
No answer came.
The speaker went silent.
I turned toward my sister.
“You knew she was alive.”
“I knew someone was here. I did not know it was Megan until today.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“Marcus told me the room held financial records. Lily followed us inside while everyone was outside singing.”
“What did she see?”
Tessa’s breathing became uneven.
“A monitor. Megan was on the screen. Lily recognized her.”
“And you attacked a four year old to silence her.”
“I panicked.”
“You chose Marcus over my daughter.”
“I was trying to protect my own child.”
Her daughter, Sophie, was the reason for the party.
“What does Sophie have to do with this?”
Tessa looked toward the locked door.
“Marcus told me he would take her away if I did not help him.”
A sound came from the other side.
Something heavy scraped across the floor.
Then Marcus spoke through the speaker.
“Daniel, walk back upstairs.”
“Open the door.”
“You are frightening Mother’s guests.”
“You bruised my child and hid my wife beneath this house.”
“I did not hide Megan here.”
“Who did?”
Marcus was silent for several seconds.
Then he answered.
“Your wife did.”
The emergency lighting failed.
In the darkness, Tessa grabbed my sleeve.
A second door opened somewhere behind us.
Someone rushed through the passage.
I heard Tessa gasp, followed by the sound of her body hitting the wall.
When the lights returned, she was lying unconscious on the floor.
Written across the concrete beside her in fresh blood were four words.
May you like
Megan chose to disappear.
Continue to the next part: Daniel must decide whether his sister is another victim or the person who helped erase his wife.
