Chapter 5 - the key beneath the staircase
Lily reached the mansion after sunset.
Her cream shoes were covered with mud, and a branch had torn one sleeve of her coat. She entered through the old greenhouse and found Adrian waiting in the winter garden.
Celeste stood beside him.
“Where were you?” Adrian demanded.
Lily had never heard him sound so frightened.
“I went for a walk.”
“For eight hours?”
“My phone died.”
“You don’t have a phone,” Celeste said.
Lily looked at her.
“I forgot.”
Adrian knelt in front of Lily and checked her hands and face.
“You cannot leave alone. Do you understand? Anything could have happened.”
“I’m sorry.”
He pulled her into his arms.
Over his shoulder, Lily saw Celeste watching.
Celeste’s hair was wet from rain.
A small cut marked the side of her hand.
“Why is Celeste wet?” Lily asked.
“She was looking for you,” Adrian said.
“Where?”
Celeste answered before he could.
“Everywhere.”
Lily remained silent.
Later, after Adrian made her promise never to leave without telling him again, Lily locked her bedroom door.
She removed the tracking device from the camcorder battery compartment.
It was no larger than a coin.
Celeste had not placed it there recently. Dust had gathered around its edges.
Someone had been tracking the camera for years.
Lily examined the brass key from Ruth’s mirror.
A number had been engraved into it.
42.
There were forty-two rooms in the Vale mansion.
Lily counted them in her notebook.
The last one was the locked room in the west corridor.
At midnight, she left her bedroom.
The mansion was quiet except for the ticking grandfather clock in the entrance hall.
She reached the west corridor and inserted the key.
It fit.
The door opened into a narrow nursery.
Moonlight fell across a white crib, a rocking chair and faded clouds painted on the walls. Everything had been preserved beneath a thin layer of dust.
Lily switched on the camcorder.
A wooden nameplate hung above the crib.
Not Lily.
Not Evelyn.
Claire.
She opened the wardrobe.
Inside were maternity dresses, a hospital bag and a pale blue blanket embroidered with the initials C.A.
A cassette tape lay beneath the blanket.
Lily turned it over.
For Adrian, if I fail.
The tape was too old for the camcorder.
She placed it in her pocket.
A drawer beside the crib contained hospital documents.
Patient: Claire Arden.
Expected delivery date: April 8.
Lily’s birthday was April 8.
Mother’s address: Vale Estate, west wing.
Emergency contact: Ruth Bell.
Father: Withheld by patient request.
A floorboard creaked outside.
Lily turned off the camcorder.
The door opened.
Margaret Vale stood in the corridor.
She did not seem surprised.
“So,” Margaret said quietly. “Ruth gave you the key.”
“I found it.”
“Where?”
“I don’t have to tell you.”
Margaret stepped into the nursery.
For once, she looked less like the woman who ruled the mansion and more like someone who had returned to a place she feared.
“This room should have been emptied years ago.”
“Who was Claire?”
“A troubled young woman.”
“Was she my mother?”
Margaret’s face revealed nothing.
“Evelyn raised you.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“You are eight years old.”
“I’m old enough to know my own mother.”
Margaret moved toward the hospital papers.
Lily grabbed them first.
“Your father cannot see those.”
“Why?”
“Because they would destroy him.”
“Or because they would destroy you?”
Margaret’s hand lifted as though she might take the documents by force.
Then Adrian’s voice came from the hallway.
“Mother?”
Margaret stepped back.
Lily hid the papers beneath her coat.
Adrian entered and looked around the room.
“What is this place?”
Margaret stared at Lily.
Lily realized Adrian truly did not know.
Before she could answer, Celeste appeared behind him.
The bride-to-be saw the nameplate above the crib.
Her expression changed.
Not surprise.
May you like
Recognition.
Then she whispered, “You opened the wrong door.”
