The Woman Beneath the House
Chapter 02 - The Woman Beneath the House
Ethan crossed the cellar and fell beside Elena. She flinched when he touched her shoulder, then recognized his voice and collapsed against him. Lily hurried down the stairs and wrapped both arms around her mother.
For several seconds, none of them could speak.
Elena had survived because Lily secretly brought her bread, water, and medicine through a narrow service passage behind the library. Victor believed the child was too frightened to disobey him. He never realized she had memorized the guards’ routines.
“I tried to escape the night I disappeared,” Elena said. “Victor caught me before I reached the gate.”
She had discovered Victor stealing millions from the Whitmore family company. Their late father had left Elena controlling shares, but Victor forged documents showing she had transferred them to him. When Elena threatened to expose the fraud, he locked her beneath the estate and sent Ethan a false farewell note.
Victor planned to keep her alive until the sale of the estate and the final merger were complete. After that, there would be no reason to leave a witness.
Footsteps thundered above.
Ethan’s investigators said police were approaching, but Victor had activated the emergency gates. No one could enter until the system was released from the security room. Worse, the cellar had only one exit.
Victor appeared at the top of the stairs, holding Elena’s missing phone.
“You should have accepted the story I gave you,” he told Ethan. “She left. You grieved. Everyone moved on.”
Ethan stood between Victor and his family. “The police will see her.”
Victor smiled. “They will find an unstable woman who hid in her own house. The medical records already say she suffered a breakdown.”
Elena stared at him. “You forged those too.”
“I prepared for every possibility.”
Then Lily pulled a small red recording device from her pocket. Elena had given it to her weeks earlier. Every word Victor had just spoken was stored inside it.
Victor’s smile disappeared.
He ordered his guards to take the device. One investigator tackled the first man on the stairs while the other tried to release the gates remotely. During the struggle, the cellar door began to close.
Ethan caught the edge, but the heavy panel kept falling. Elena held Lily close as darkness swallowed the staircase.
“Get Lily out!” Elena cried.
Ethan wedged his shoulder beneath the door and looked at his wife.
“I already lost you once,” he said. “I am not leaving without you again.”
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Above them, Victor reached for the brass key.
And the only proof of his confession was still in Lily’s hand.
