Chapter 9 - THE SECRET ROOM ABOVE THE ROSESThe hidden passage behind the records room smelled of dust and old wood.
Arabella ran blindly, one hand against the wall, following the sound of Malcolm’s footsteps ahead. She heard Dante behind her, calling her name, but rage was louder than caution.
The passage climbed.
Up from the basement.
Behind the walls.
Through the bones of Vale Manor.
Her childhood home had secrets inside its secrets.
Malcolm reached a door at the top and shoved it open.
Arabella burst after him into a room she had never seen before.
It was small, windowless, and lined with monitors.
Security feeds covered every wall.
The front gate. The ballroom. The bedrooms. The cellar. The greenhouse.
And one screen showed a narrow underground room with a metal bed.
Arabella stopped breathing.
She knew that bed.
The walls seemed to close around her.
Malcolm moved behind a desk and opened a drawer.
Arabella raised her gun.
“Don’t.”
He paused.
For the first time, he looked afraid.
Only a little.
But enough.
“You don’t know how to use that.”
“I learned many things after you threw me away.”
His gaze flicked toward the monitors. “You were not thrown away. You were contained.”
“I was a person.”
“You were an asset.”
That word did something to her.
For twelve years she had wondered why. Why her fiancé drugged her. Why her uncle stole her name. Why no one came.
Now the answer stood in front of her.
Not hatred.
Not madness.
Ownership.
She had not been murdered because Malcolm needed her dead.
She had been erased because he needed her useful.
The door behind her slammed open.
Dante entered with blood on his sleeve and murder in his eyes.
Malcolm’s hand darted into the drawer.
Dante fired.
The bullet struck Malcolm’s wrist. The gold ring flew off his hand and skittered across the floor.
Malcolm screamed.
Arabella did not.
She stared at the ring.
A memory returned.
Her father’s office. Malcolm’s hand around a glass. The ring tapping against crystal.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
“The trust won’t activate unless she is legally dead,” Malcolm had said.
Her father shouting, “Then you will never touch it.”
Then Caleb’s voice.
“She trusts me.”
Arabella staggered.
Dante caught her.
“Stay with me.”
She pointed at the desk.
“The ring.”
Dante picked it up.
Inside the band was a tiny compartment.
He opened it with the tip of a knife.
A microchip fell into his palm.
Malcolm laughed through his pain.
“You think that helps you?”
Dante looked at him. “I think you wouldn’t bleed over something worthless.”
Nico entered with Evelyn and Caleb. Caleb had a split lip. Evelyn held one arm close to her body, but she was alive.
Arabella walked to the monitors.
The feed showing the underground room had a timestamp.
Live.
She touched the screen.
“There’s someone there.”
Dante stepped beside her.
At first, he saw only shadows.
Then movement.
A small hand appeared at the edge of the metal bed.
Arabella turned slowly toward Malcolm.
“Who is in that room?”
Malcolm said nothing.
Dante grabbed him by the throat and slammed him against the desk.
“Answer her.”
Malcolm smiled despite the blood.
“You thought you were the only one I kept?”
Arabella’s stomach dropped.
Evelyn covered her mouth.
Caleb whispered, “No.”
On the screen, a child crawled into view.
A little girl, no more than six years old, with tangled dark hair and gray-green eyes.
Arabella could not move.
May you like
Malcolm looked at her and delivered the final cruelty like a gift.
“Meet your daughter.”
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