Chapter 2 - The Room That Wasn't Empty.
Gabriel moved Elena behind him before the handle finished turning.
The motion was fast but controlled.
He did not grab her.
He simply stepped between her and the door.
The handle stopped.
Silence returned to the corridor.
Elena stared at the polished brass knob.
"Someone's in there."
"Maybe," Gabriel said.
"You heard it."
"I heard something."
He held out his hand.
"Key."
Elena hesitated.
"You just told me to keep it."
"I changed my mind."
"That happens often?"
Gabriel glanced at her.
"Only when locked rooms start answering back."
Despite everything, the line almost made her smile.
Almost.
She handed him the largest key.
The one marked M.
Gabriel examined the scratch.
"Who marked this?"
"I don't know."
That was technically true.
Elena knew what the letter meant to her.
She did not know who had carved it.
Gabriel inserted the key and turned it slowly.
The lock opened with a dry mechanical click.
He pushed the door inward.
Bright hallway light spilled into a narrow room lined with empty shelving.
Nothing moved.
There was no person inside.
Elena stepped around him.
"That's impossible."
Gabriel caught her arm lightly before she crossed the threshold.
The instant his fingers touched her sleeve, she recoiled.
He let go at once.
"Sorry."
Elena hated that he looked guilty.
"No."
She rubbed her arm.
"I should've warned you."
"About what?"
"That I'm not good with people grabbing me right now."
Gabriel's face hardened again.
"Whoever made that true is the person I want to meet."
"You really don't."
He looked into the room.
"Stay here."
"That's not happening."
"Elena."
"My sister disappeared after working in this house."
The words stopped him cold.
For six weeks, Elena had rehearsed how she might tell him.
None of those imagined conversations had started with a locked room and a threat on her phone.
Gabriel slowly turned.
"What did you say?"
"Her name was Mara Torres."
Something flickered in his eyes.
Recognition.
Elena saw it.
"You know that name."
"I know a Mara."
"From here?"
"Eight years ago."
Her throat tightened.
"So you do remember her."
Gabriel looked away for half a second.
"She wasn't a housekeeper."
"Then what was she?"
"An accounting intern."
Elena stared at him.
Mara had told their family she had taken a temporary housekeeping job at a private estate outside the city.
She had never mentioned accounting.
"Why would she lie to us?"
"I don't know."
"Did you know she disappeared?"
"Not then."
"And later?"
Gabriel did not answer quickly enough.
Anger burned through Elena's fear.
"You knew."
"I learned there was an investigation after I came back from Europe."
"And you did nothing?"
"You think I controlled this house at twenty-six?"
"Your name was on the gate."
"My father's name was on the gate."
The distinction mattered to him.
Elena could hear it.
Before she could push further, Gabriel entered the storage room.
He ran a hand along the empty shelving and checked the windowless walls.
Elena stood at the doorway.
"There's nowhere for anyone to go."
Gabriel crouched near the floor.
"Maybe there is."
A narrow line cut across the marble baseboard behind the lowest shelf.
He pressed it.
Nothing happened.
Elena stepped closer.
The air smelled faintly of dust and cedar.
Then she noticed something stranger.
One square of flooring was clean.
Too clean.
"That tile was moved recently."
Gabriel looked over.
Together, they shifted the light shelving unit away from the wall.
Behind it was a rectangular panel with no handle.
Gabriel pressed one edge.
The panel opened inward.
A narrow passage disappeared into darkness.
Elena's skin prickled.
"You knew this was here?"
"No."
"It's your house."
"I'm starting to hate hearing that sentence."
Gabriel pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight.
"I'm calling security."
Elena caught his sleeve.
He looked down at her hand.
She released him.
"Don't."
"Why?"
"Because somebody killed the camera outside this room before we got here."
"So?"
"Who controls the cameras?"
Gabriel's expression changed.
"Internal security."
"Then maybe don't announce that we found their secret hallway."
He stared at her for a moment.
"You think someone on my staff is behind this?"
"I think somebody knew I opened that door before you did."
That answer landed.
Gabriel looked toward the corridor where Celeste had disappeared.
Then he shut the storage door behind them.
"Stay close."
"I'm not hiding behind you."
"I didn't ask you to."
They entered the passage.
The hidden corridor was barely wide enough for one person at a time.
Old electrical wires ran along the ceiling.
Dust covered the floor except for one set of fresh shoe prints.
They followed them twenty feet.
The passage ended at a small office hidden between the mansion walls.
Inside sat a desk, two monitors, a compact server unit, and a wall covered with printed photographs.
Elena stepped closer.
The photographs showed mansion staff arriving and leaving over several months.
Celeste was there.
The chef was there.
Gabriel was there.
So was Elena.
Dozens of pictures of Elena.
At the grocery store.
At a bus stop.
Outside her apartment.
One image showed her sleeping on her couch through the living-room window.
Her stomach turned.
"They've been watching me."
Gabriel's voice dropped.
"Not just you."
He pointed to an older photograph pinned in the center of the wall.
A young woman stood near the estate's front fountain, smiling at someone outside the frame.
Elena knew that smile.
She had seen it in family photos all her life.
Mara.
Across the bottom of the picture, someone had written four words in red ink.
SHE SHOULD HAVE LISTENED.
A monitor on the desk suddenly came alive.
A live camera feed appeared.
It showed the hidden office from above.
Elena and Gabriel were standing in the center of the screen.
Then white text appeared beneath their image.
May you like
YOU SHOULD HAVE TOO.
The lights went out.
