Chapter 2 - The Woman Vanessa Said Had Left
The metal door opened inward only six inches before something blocked it.
Daniel shoved harder.
A cardboard storage bin toppled.
Then a woman’s hand appeared through the gap.
“Daniel?”
His body went rigid.
He knew that voice.
“Rebecca?”
His older sister stumbled out of the narrow room coughing from dust.
Her blazer was torn at one elbow. Her face was flushed, and one wrist was scraped where she had apparently tried to force the interior latch.
Lily ran toward her.
“Aunt Rebecca!”
Daniel caught Lily before she reached the debris.
“Stay back, honey.”
Then he turned to Vanessa.
“What the hell did you do?”
Vanessa shook her head rapidly.
“It wasn’t—”
Rebecca cut her off.
“She locked me in.”
Daniel stared.
Vanessa’s eyes filled.
“That isn’t what happened.”
Rebecca laughed once.
“You moved a wardrobe in front of the door.”
“I panicked.”
“You plastered over it.”
“That panel was already there!”
That detail stopped Daniel.
Rebecca leaned against the workbench.
“She’s right about that part.”
Daniel looked between them.
The room behind the metal door appeared older than the renovated storage room surrounding it. Concrete walls. Steel shelving. A ventilation grate. No windows.
A storm room.
Or a safe room.
Daniel had owned the mansion for five years and never knew it existed.
“How long were you in there?”
Rebecca checked her watch.
“Thirty-eight minutes.”
Daniel’s anger sharpened.
“Why were you inside it?”
Rebecca looked at Vanessa.
Vanessa immediately said, “Don’t.”
Rebecca’s expression hardened.
“I came here because Vanessa told me the Carter estate records had been destroyed during the basement flood.”
Daniel frowned.
“What estate records?”
Rebecca looked at him.
“Our father’s original company ledgers.”
Daniel felt something shift.
Their father had been dead eleven years.
The family business had been reorganized afterward.
There should have been no reason for anyone to care about old handwritten ledgers.
Rebecca continued.
“Except they weren’t destroyed.”
She turned and pointed through the opening.
“They’re in there.”
Daniel looked at Vanessa.
She had stopped crying.
That frightened him more.
“What are you hiding?”
Vanessa’s answer came quietly.
“Something your father did.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“No.”
May you like
Her eyes stayed on Vanessa.
“Something she did after she found out.”
