Chapter 1 - THE VOICE IN THE RECORDING
Adrian stood completely still.
The voice on the recorder had lasted less than six seconds.
But six seconds was enough.
He knew that voice.
He had heard it at business dinners.
At family meetings.
At Christmas parties.
He had trusted it.
He pressed the replay button.
“You know what happens if your father finds out.”
Vanessa.
Then Lily's frightened breathing.
And finally—
“Make sure she never tells him.”
The man's voice.
Adrian's stomach turned.
He replayed it again.
This time, he recognized the voice clearly.
“Daniel?”
His younger brother.
Daniel had been staying at the estate for the past three months while supposedly helping Vanessa manage the property.
Adrian looked toward the hallway.
The house was silent.
Too silent.
He immediately called Detective Morgan, the officer who had accompanied him to the clinic.
“I found something,” Adrian said.
“What?”
“A recording.”
“Don't touch anything else.”
“I already heard it.”
“Who is on it?”
“My brother.”
There was a pause.
“Where is he now?”
Adrian looked toward the staircase.
“I don't know.”
That was when a floorboard creaked upstairs.
Adrian slowly turned.
Someone was walking across the second floor.
“Detective,” he whispered, “someone is still here.”
“Leave the house.”
Adrian didn't move.
He couldn't.
Because Lily was still inside.
He climbed the stairs slowly.
Every instinct told him to wait for the police.
But then he heard a small sound.
A soft knock.
Three times.
From behind Lily's bedroom door.
Adrian opened it.
Lily stood inside.
She was holding a stuffed rabbit against her chest.
Her eyes were wide.
“Dad?”
He rushed toward her.
“What are you doing up here?”
She looked past him.
“Uncle Daniel told me to stay quiet.”
Adrian's blood went cold.
“When?”
“Before you came home.”
“Where is he?”
Lily pointed toward the closet.
“He was hiding there.”
Adrian opened the closet.
Empty.
But something had been left behind.
A black leather glove.
And beneath it, a photograph.
Adrian picked it up.
It showed Lily standing outside the house.
Taken from a distance.
On the back was a handwritten sentence:
SHE KNOWS TOO MUCH.
Adrian's phone rang.
Detective Morgan.
“Adrian, get out now.”
“Why?”
“We checked the security system.”
“What about it?”
“It was disabled for exactly forty-seven minutes tonight.”
Adrian stared at the photograph.
“Someone planned this.”
“No,” Morgan said.
“They planned much more than this.”
Then Lily whispered something that made Adrian's heart stop.
“Dad…”
He looked down.
“I saw Uncle Daniel put someone in the basement.”
Adrian froze.
“Someone?”
Lily nodded.
May you like
“A woman.”
And then the basement door slammed shut.
