Chapter 10 - LOCKED UNDER THE MANSIONThe records room had been built to survive fire.
That meant it was also very good at keeping people trapped.
No windows.
Steel door.
Thick stone walls.
One ventilation shaft too narrow for anything larger than a child.
Claire stood with both hands over her stomach while Ethan and Daniel threw their shoulders against the door. It did not move.
“Stop,” Margaret snapped. “You’ll injure yourselves.”
Daniel spun toward her.
“You know this room. Open it.”
“The lock is electronic.”
“Then override it.”
“The override is upstairs.”
Vanessa laughed once, sharp and terrified.
“Perfect.”
The air already felt thin.
Claire tried not to panic.
Panic hurt the baby.
Panic made her dizzy.
Ethan noticed anyway.
He left the door and came to her.
“Sit down.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re lying.”
“Apparently I learned from your family.”
The words came out harsher than intended.
Ethan accepted them.
He helped her sit on a storage trunk.
Across the room, Daniel was calling someone. No signal. Margaret searched drawers. Vanessa paced like a trapped cat.
Then the intercom crackled again.
Harlan’s voice filled the room.
“You’re all wondering why I waited.”
Margaret closed her eyes.
“Harlan, don’t.”
He chuckled.
“Still giving orders. Still pretending consequences are beneath you.”
Ethan looked at Margaret.
“What does he mean?”
Margaret said nothing.
Harlan continued, “Your father understood loyalty, Ethan. Your mother understood image. Daniel understood humiliation. But Claire… Claire understands loss. That makes her dangerous.”
Claire’s mouth went dry.
“What do you want?”
The intercom hissed.
“I wanted what was stolen.”
Daniel suddenly shouted, “You said you would protect me!”
Everyone turned.
There it was.
The crack in Daniel’s armor.
Margaret stared at him.
“You’ve been working with him.”
Daniel’s face twisted.
“He came to me after I learned the truth.”
“What truth?” Ethan demanded.
Daniel looked at him, eyes burning.
“That I am not your brother.”
The room went silent.
Even Vanessa stopped moving.
Ethan stared at Daniel.
“What?”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“Not biologically. Not legally, if Mother had told the truth. I am the son of our uncle Robert. The inconvenient branch. The bloodline they erased.”
Claire looked at Margaret.
The older woman seemed to age ten years in one breath.
“It was complicated.”
Daniel exploded.
“I was a child!”
The force of his voice echoed off the walls.
“You let me spend my whole life begging for a place in a family that had already decided I was a problem to manage.”
Ethan looked shattered.
“Daniel…”
“No.” Daniel pointed at him. “Don’t pity me. You had everything. Name. Blood. Company. Grandfather’s devotion. Even my birthright was folded into your inheritance because they lied.”
Margaret whispered, “Robert was dangerous.”
“He was my father.”
“He tried to destroy the company.”
“So you destroyed me instead?”
Claire saw it then.
Daniel’s hatred had not begun with greed.
It began as a boy standing outside doors that never opened.
But pain did not excuse murder.
Ethan said quietly, “Did you cut my brakes?”
Daniel’s face crumpled for one second.
“No.”
“Did Harlan?”
Daniel looked toward the intercom.
Harlan answered for him.
“I gave Daniel truth. What he did with it was his own weakness.”
Daniel’s jaw clenched.
“You promised justice.”
“I promised opportunity.”
Margaret gripped the edge of the table.
“Harlan, let Claire out. She has nothing to do with our sins.”
Harlan laughed softly.
“She carries the heir. That makes her the only person in this room who matters.”
The air vent above them clicked shut.
Vanessa whispered, “He’s cutting oxygen.”
Ethan moved to the vent, dragging a metal chair beneath it.
Claire tried to stand.
Pain stabbed low in her belly.
She froze.
A warm sensation spread.
Her breath stopped.
Margaret saw her face.
“Claire?”
Claire looked down.
A small dark stain spread across the silk robe.
“No,” Ethan whispered.
Another pain hit.
Harder.
Claire gripped the trunk and gasped.
Margaret rushed to her.
Vanessa’s face went pale.
Daniel stepped back as if the sight of blood finally made the nightmare real.
Ethan knelt in front of Claire.
His hands shook, but his voice was steady.
“Look at me.”
Claire’s eyes filled with terror.
“It’s too early.”
“I know.”
“The baby—”
“Noah is going to live,” Ethan said.
He said the name like a promise remembered from another life.
The intercom crackled.
May you like
Harlan’s voice returned, amused.
“Well,” he said, “this should make the vote easier.”
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