Chapter 2
I did not take Audrey down the passage.
That was the first decision I made correctly that afternoon.
Mrs. Keller carried her inside with two guards while I ordered the terrace locked down.
Vivienne shouted after them.
“Audrey stays here.”
I turned.
“No.”
“She knows things.”
That sentence slipped out before she could stop it.
I walked closer.
“What things?”
Her face tightened.
“Children imagine.”
“No.”
I glanced toward the hidden passage.
“Children remember.”
Damian had been pulled from the wreckage and placed under guard.
He looked at Vivienne with irritation, not fear.
That interested me.
They had expected exposure eventually.
Maybe not today.
I took one flashlight and descended.
The passage turned beneath the pool terrace and opened into a small underground room.
Not a dungeon.
Worse.
A lived-in room.
Bed.
Water bottles.
Old blankets.
A broken lamp.
A child’s drawing taped to the wall.
I stepped closer.
Three figures.
Me.
Natalie.
Audrey.
My breathing changed.
The drawing was dated in Natalie’s handwriting.
Six months after the day she supposedly left.
I stared at it until the numbers blurred.
She had been alive.
Here.
Under my house.
I heard footsteps behind me.
Mrs. Keller.
I turned sharply.
“You were told to stay upstairs.”
“I needed to show you something.”
She walked toward a low shelf and pulled out a small tin box.
Inside were two faded blue bracelets.
One adult-sized.
One child-sized.
Natalie’s matching bracelet.
I looked at Keller.
“How long was she here?”
Her eyes filled.
“Four days.”
Only four.
Then gone again.
“Who kept her here?”
Keller looked toward the ceiling.
“Vivienne.”
My anger went still.
May you like
Not because I believed that was the whole truth.
Because Mrs. Keller had finally said the first name aloud.
