Chapter 1 - forty-eight hours earlier
Two days before the wedding, Sophie woke Evelyn at four in the morning.
She stood beside the bed wearing pink socks and holding a folded piece of paper.
“Mommy?”
Evelyn opened her eyes.
“What happened?”
“I heard someone downstairs.”
The Vale estate was rarely quiet. Assistants, caterers and decorators had been arriving at all hours to prepare for the wedding. Evelyn had returned to her childhood home only because her mother insisted the estate would provide privacy before the ceremony.
“What did you hear?”
“A man talking.”
“Was it Preston?”
Sophie hesitated.
“I think so.”
Evelyn sat up and switched on the bedside lamp.
Sophie had been frightened easily since losing her biological mother six years earlier. Nora Vale, Evelyn’s younger sister, had disappeared during a winter storm. Her damaged car had been found beside a mountain road, but her body had never been recovered.
After the official search ended, Evelyn adopted Nora’s two-year-old daughter.
From that moment, Sophie had called her Mommy.
Evelyn moved aside and allowed Sophie to climb into the bed.
“What was Preston saying?”
“He said everything would happen at the wedding.”
“That sounds normal.”
“He said, ‘After she signs, the girl won’t be our problem anymore.’”
Evelyn’s smile disappeared.
“Are you sure?”
Sophie nodded.
“Someone answered him through the computer. A woman.”
“Did you see who she was?”
“No. The door was almost closed.”
“Which room?”
Sophie handed Evelyn the folded paper.
She had drawn a hallway with several doors. At the end of it was a rectangle marked with two crooked numbers.
17.
Evelyn knew every room in the estate.
There was no Room 17.
The family home had twelve bedrooms, three studies and a west-wing archive that had been locked since Nora disappeared.
“Show me where you heard them.”
Sophie led her into the corridor.
The estate was dark except for small lamps along the walls. They crossed the second-floor landing and descended the rear staircase toward the old service hall.
Sophie stopped beside a wall covered with framed photographs.
“It was here.”
Evelyn saw no door.
Only photographs of the Vale family through the years.
Her parents at charity events.
Evelyn graduating from university.
Nora holding baby Sophie.
Preston standing beside Evelyn at last year’s company gala.
Sophie pointed toward a photograph of Nora.
“The door was behind Aunt Nora.”
Evelyn lifted the frame.
The wall beneath it appeared solid, but the wallpaper was slightly raised along one edge.
Before she could touch it, a light came on behind them.
Preston stood at the end of the corridor.
He wore a white shirt with the sleeves rolled to his elbows. His expression was calm, but his right hand was closed tightly around a small silver key.
“What are you two doing down here?”
Sophie moved behind Evelyn.
“She heard someone talking,” Evelyn said.
“At four in the morning?”
“Yes.”
Preston smiled.
“Children have vivid dreams.”
“It wasn’t a dream,” Sophie whispered.
Preston’s eyes moved toward her.
“You should not wander through other people’s houses at night.”
“This is my family’s home,” Evelyn said.
“And soon it will be our family’s home.”
He walked toward them and replaced the photograph against the wall.
“Come back to bed. We have a long day tomorrow.”
May you like
Evelyn noticed a fresh scratch across his wrist.
She also noticed that the silver key in his hand was stamped with the number 17.
