Chapter 7 - The Secret Beneath the Mansion
By Christmas morning, Emily had recovered enough to speak more comfortably, though the doctors wanted to keep her under observation.
Nicholas returned to her room carrying a small paper bag.
Inside were warm socks and a red knitted scarf.
Emily blinked.
“You bought these?”
“Apparently, I'm terrible at choosing gifts.”
She smiled for the first time since he'd met her outside the ordinary routine of the mansion.
“They're perfect.”
Nicholas sat beside her.
“Your mother believed Isabella was alive.”
“She knew she was.”
Emily reached into the drawer beside her hospital bed.
Luca had retrieved her handbag from the staff locker.
Inside was a small leather notebook.
“My mother made me promise not to show anyone unless I found proof that Richard was involved.”
Nicholas opened it carefully.
Most pages contained dates, names, and addresses.
One entry was circled in red.
December 24. The blue room. Beneath the angel.
Nicholas went still.
“The blue room?”
Emily nodded.
“Do you know it?”
“It was Isabella's bedroom.”
He remembered the pale blue walls, the white curtains, and the little porcelain angel Isabella kept beside her bed.
After she disappeared, Nicholas had ordered the room locked.
Nobody had entered it in years.
He called Luca.
“Go to Isabella's bedroom. Find the angel.”
Twenty minutes later, Luca called back.
“Boss, I found it.”
“What's beneath it?”
“A metal panel under the floorboards.”
Nicholas stood.
“Open it.”
There was a long silence.
Then Luca spoke again.
“There's a staircase.”
Nicholas gripped the phone.
“A staircase to where?”
“I don't know. It goes beneath the east wing.”
Another silence followed.
Then Luca's voice dropped.
“Boss... someone has been down here recently.”
“How can you tell?”
“Fresh footprints. Food wrappers. A blanket.”
Nicholas looked at Emily.
Luca continued.
“And there's a message written on the wall.”
May you like
“What does it say?”
Richard isn't the one giving the orders.
