Chapter 6 - The Cottage by the Sea
Door 17 belonged to a row of private storage rooms beneath the Whitmore summer estate.
The estate stood on the Maine coast, surrounded by pine forest and gray ocean. Daniel had spent childhood summers there with Julian, racing along the cliffs while their fathers drank on the terrace.
He had not returned since Amelia’s funeral.
They drove north before dawn.
Daniel insisted the twins remain at Whitmore House under heavy guard.
Ethan refused to let Elena leave.
“You’ll come back?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“You promise?”
Elena hesitated.
Ethan saw it.
“People always say promise before they leave.”
Elena knelt.
“I plan to come back.”
“That’s not the same.”
“No. It is more honest.”
Ethan looked down at the floor.
Noah wrapped his arms around Elena’s neck.
Daniel watched from the doorway.
His sons had rejected therapists, relatives, teachers, and every nanny he hired.
Yet after less than a week, they clung to Elena as though she had always belonged in their lives.
Perhaps, in a way, she had.
During the drive, Daniel sat beside Elena in the back of the armored SUV.
Marcus rode in front.
“Why did you apply as a housekeeper?” Daniel asked.
“Mrs. Finch owed my mother a favor.”
Daniel looked sharply at her.
“Mrs. Finch knew who you were?”
“She recognized my mother’s name. Nothing more.”
“What did you intend to do inside my house?”
“Find the documents Amelia hid.”
“And you believed they were in the west wing.”
“Yes.”
“Why not tell me?”
“Amelia did not trust you.”
The answer hurt more than Daniel expected.
“She was my wife.”
“She loved you.”
“That is not the same thing.”
“No.”
Daniel looked out at the rain.
“Why didn’t she trust me?”
“Because your instinct is to control what frightens you.”
“My sons were in danger.”
“They are still in danger.”
“And you concealed that.”
“I did not know who inside the house was involved.”
“You suspected me.”
Elena met his eyes.
“Yes.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“What changed?”
“I watched you with the boys.”
“You watched me fail them.”
“I watched you stand outside their bedroom for three hours because Noah told you to go away, but you were afraid to leave him alone.”
Daniel looked down.
He had not known anyone saw that.
Elena continued.
“You are not cruel, Daniel. But grief has made you blind.”
It was the first time she had used his name.
He did not correct her.
The summer estate appeared through the rain shortly before noon.
It was a vast cedar-shingled house overlooking the sea. Salt had whitened the windows. Vines covered the old servants’ entrance.
Marcus unlocked the main door.
Inside, sheets covered the furniture.
Daniel remembered Amelia dancing through the hall barefoot on their first summer as newlyweds.
Elena remembered meeting her here in secret.
They walked to the cellar.
The storage corridor smelled of stone and damp wood.
Doors numbered 1 through 20 lined the walls.
Door 17 stood at the far end.
Daniel examined the lock.
“No sign of damage.”
Elena removed a key from the lining of her coat.
Daniel stared.
“Amelia mailed it to me a week before she died.”
“Why did you wait?”
“She told me not to open the door unless she failed to contact me for one year.”
“It has been eleven months.”
“She called me the night she died.”
“What did she say?”
Elena inserted the key.
“She said she had made a mistake.”
“What mistake?”
“She trusted someone she should not have trusted.”
The lock turned.
Door 17 opened.
The storage room contained a desk, a chair, and six metal filing cabinets.
A portable lamp stood in the corner.
Marcus checked the room first.
“No one here.”
Daniel entered.
Photographs covered the walls.
Photographs of Ethan and Noah.
At the hospital.
In the garden.
At school.
Sleeping in their nursery.
Many had been taken from a distance.
Others had been taken inside Whitmore House.
Daniel’s face hardened.
“Someone was watching them.”
Elena opened a filing cabinet.
It was empty.
All six cabinets were empty.
Daniel moved to the desk.
A small digital recorder rested in the center.
He pressed play.
Amelia’s voice filled the room.
“Daniel, if you are listening, Elena finally decided to break my rules.”
Elena closed her eyes.
Amelia continued.
“The trust is not the reason I brought you here. The missing money is only part of it.”
A pause.
“I found medical records for Ethan and Noah dated six months before they were born.”
Daniel stopped breathing.
“That’s impossible,” Marcus whispered.
On the recording, Amelia began to cry.
“Our sons were not the only twins born that year.”
A floorboard creaked overhead.
Marcus raised his weapon.
The lamp went out.
Someone slammed the storage door.
May you like
Daniel rushed toward it, but it locked from the outside.
Then gasoline began flowing beneath the door.
