Chapter 2
Panic, sharp and blinding, gripped Emma’s chest, but an overwhelming protective instinct immediately overrode it. She could hear Ethan’s ragged, wheezing breaths through the vent. He was suffocating. Emma scrambled to her feet, abandoning her champagne tray entirely. She sprinted to the nearby decorative fireplace at the end of the hall and grabbed a heavy, solid iron fire poker from the stand.
She rushed back to the disguised wall panel, her flats skidding on the floor. She wedged the sharp end of the fire poker into the nearly invisible seam where the brick met the wood molding.
"Ethan, keep talking—I’m getting you out," Emma said, her voice shaking with panic but laced with urgent, fierce determination. She threw her entire body weight against the heavy iron tool, tearing at the concealed latch while constantly glancing nervously over her shoulder toward the ballroom corridor.
"I can't... I can't breathe," Ethan gasped, his fingers slipping from the vent slats. "It's so dark. Please hurry."
"I am, I am!" Emma grunted, pulling back on the poker with all her might. "Stay with me, Ethan! Keep your eyes open!"
With a loud, violent snap, the concealed latch finally broke. The heavy disguised wall panel swung outward, hitting the corridor wall with a dull thud.
The stench of stale air and despair rolled out of the darkness. Emma dropped the fire poker and pulled the panel completely open. Inside was a cramped, hidden room barely large enough for a person to sit upright. Ethan was curled into a tight ball in the corner, clutching a filthy, moth-eaten blanket. Beside him sat an empty plastic water bottle and an empty ceramic food bowl with a single, gnawed dog bone resting inside it.
Emma let out a horrified sob. She reached inside the dark, suffocating space and grabbed Ethan by his shoulders, hauling his weak body out onto the corridor floor. His expensive clothing was completely ruined and caked in thick, grey dust, though his body appeared miraculously uninjured.
May you like
Ethan clung to Emma’s neck with desperate, trembling strength. He buried his face in her housekeeping apron, shaking so violently his teeth chattered. He looked past her shoulder toward the end of the corridor, his eyes wide with a manic, buried fear, before finally meeting her gentle, tear-filled eyes.
"She said Dad would never find me," Ethan sobbed, his whisper barely audible over the distant party music.
