Chapter 1 - THE THREE WORDS THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
# THE MAFIA BOSS SAW HIS FIANCÉE KICK THE MAID'S CRUTCHES AWAY—THEN HIS PARALYZED FATHER POINTED TO THE STAIRCASE
“STOP PRETENDING YOU'RE HURT!” THE MAFIA BOSS'S FIANCÉE SCREAMED, KICKING A YOUNG MAID'S CRUTCHES OUT FROM UNDER HER. THE GIRL COLLAPSED ONTO THE MARBLE FLOOR. BUT WHEN THE MAFIA BOSS RUSHED TO HELP, HIS PARALYZED FATHER POINTED TOWARD THE STAIRCASE AND STRUGGLED TO SAY THREE WORDS THAT MADE EVERYONE GO SILENT.
“Please, Mrs. Sterling. I can't stand without them.”
Clara Hayes, twenty-four, gripped her crutches in the mansion's entrance hall.
Her left ankle was swollen beneath a medical brace.
Vanessa Sterling folded her arms.
“You've been limping around for three days. I'm tired of your little performance.”
“I'm not pretending.”
Vanessa suddenly kicked one crutch sideways.
Clara lost her balance.
She fell hard onto the marble.
A cry escaped her lips.
Vanessa looked down.
“See? You can move perfectly well.”
“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?”
Sebastian Romano stormed through the front door.
He dropped beside Clara.
“Don't move. Where does it hurt?”
“My ankle, sir.”
Sebastian helped her sit upright, then turned toward Vanessa.
“Why would you kick her crutches?”
Vanessa shrugged.
“She's faking an injury to avoid working.”
Before Sebastian could answer, a faint sound came from the living room.
His father, Antonio Romano, sat in his wheelchair.
Seventy-nine years old.
Paralyzed after a stroke, he could barely form words.
But his right hand was trembling violently.
He raised one finger.
Pointed toward the grand staircase.
Then struggled to speak.
“She… pushed… her.”
Sebastian froze.
“Dad?”
Antonio pointed again.
At the staircase.
Then at Vanessa.
Vanessa's face went pale.
“He's confused. You know how he gets.”
Clara suddenly began crying.
Sebastian turned toward her.
“Clara. What happened on those stairs?”
She shook her head.
“Please don't make me say it.”
“Why?”
Her voice cracked.
“Because she told me she'd hurt my little brother if I told anyone.”
Sebastian slowly stood.
“Who did Vanessa push?”
Clara looked toward Antonio.
Then whispered:
“Your father's private nurse.”
Sebastian stared.
“Margaret?”
Margaret Ellis had disappeared three nights earlier.
Vanessa claimed she'd resigned without notice.
Clara wiped her tears.
“Margaret was helping your father upstairs when Mrs. Sterling started arguing with her.”
“About what?”
“I don't know. But Margaret said she wouldn't sign something.”
Sebastian's expression hardened.
Clara continued.
“Mrs. Sterling shoved her near the landing. I grabbed Margaret's arm before she fell all the way down.”
She looked at her injured ankle.
“I twisted it trying to hold her.”
Sebastian turned toward Vanessa.
“Where is Margaret now?”
Vanessa backed away.
“I have no idea.”
Antonio suddenly struck his wheelchair armrest.
Once.
Twice.
Then pointed toward the locked door beneath the staircase.
Sebastian followed his father's finger.
The old servants' passage.
A passage Vanessa had ordered sealed the previous month.
Sebastian walked toward it.
Vanessa rushed forward.
“Don't open that door!”
He stopped.
“Why?”
Her voice shook.
“Because there's nothing in there!”
Sebastian took the master key from his pocket.
The lock turned.
Inside, the narrow passage smelled of damp wood.
A woman's white nursing shoe lay beside the first step.
There was a dark stain on its heel.
Clara covered her mouth.
“That's Margaret's.”
Sebastian looked back at his father.
Antonio was crying.
Then the old man forced out another word.
“Below.”
Sebastian stared at the staircase.
Beneath the servants' passage was a locked cellar.
And the last time he'd checked, nobody had used it in years.
He turned toward Vanessa.
“Give me the cellar key.”
She shook her head.
“Sebastian, please.”
“Now.”
But before she could answer, a faint metallic knocking echoed from below.
Three slow knocks.
A pause.
Then three more.
Clara gripped Sebastian's arm.
“Sir… Margaret used to knock three times on your father's bedroom door before entering.”
The knocking came again.
Sebastian's face drained of color.
Then Antonio began struggling desperately to speak.
Sebastian knelt beside him.
“Dad, what is it?”
His father's lips trembled.
“Not… Margaret.”
Sebastian froze.
“What?”
Antonio pointed toward the cellar.
His eyes filled with terror.
Then he forced out two more words.
“Your mother.”
Sebastian stopped breathing.
His mother had been declared dead twelve years earlier.
And suddenly, the knocking beneath the staircase stopped.
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Read Chapter 2 in the first comment to discover who was trapped beneath the mansion—and what Clara witnessed the night Vanessa attacked the nurse. Thank you for reading!
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