Chapter 15 - the door beneath the door)
They searched Saint Orison until midnight.
Helena remained missing.
So did the federal transport team.
No abandoned vehicle.
No distress call.
No useful camera footage.
It was as though the mountain had swallowed them.
Claire wanted to leave.
Take Lily.
Take Ethan.
Return to New York and build a life far away from ruined churches and dead family secrets.
Then Daniel showed her the final page from Eleanor's journal.
He had kept it for seventeen years.
Claire recognized her mother's handwriting immediately.
If Claire ever opens the first chamber, she must know it was never the real secret.
Claire read the sentence twice.
"What does that mean?"
Daniel looked toward the underground archive.
"I don't know."
"You've lived around this place for seventeen years."
"I didn't live inside Saint Orison."
"Where were you?"
"Everywhere Helena wasn't looking."
Vanessa stood beside the window.
"You could have contacted me."
Daniel closed his eyes.
"I know."
"No."
Vanessa's voice cracked.
"You don't get to say that like it fixes anything."
He looked at her.
"It doesn't."
Claire stepped between them.
"We deal with that later."
She held up the journal page.
"What is the real secret?"
Thomas, who had been examined and released by paramedics, slowly entered.
"There is another level."
Everyone turned.
Richard frowned.
"Impossible."
Thomas looked at him.
"You never knew Saint Orison."
"I owned it for forty years."
"No."
Thomas shook his head.
"You paid taxes on it for forty years."
Claire looked at Thomas.
"Another level where?"
"Beneath the archive."
They returned underground.
Lily stayed above with trusted agents.
Claire hated leaving her even for minutes, but she needed this finished.
Inside the archive Thomas moved a storage cabinet away from the wall.
Behind it was a stone carving.
Three circles.
Claire's pendant fit into the center.
She pressed it against the carving.
Nothing happened.
Daniel examined the wall.
"Eleanor said the first chamber wasn't the real secret."
Vanessa looked at the circles.
"Three sisters."
Claire turned.
"What?"
"Our grandmother used to tell us Saint Orison had three guardians."
"Eleanor and Helena were two."
"Who was the third?"
Vanessa's face changed.
"I don't know."
Thomas stepped backward.
Richard sat heavily on a wooden crate.
Claire noticed.
"You know."
Richard looked at the floor.
"Tell me."
He looked up.
"There was another child."
Claire's stomach tightened.
"My grandmother had three daughters?"
"No."
Richard looked at her.
"Eleanor did."
Claire stared.
"What are you talking about?"
Richard's voice became almost inaudible.
"Before you."
Claire felt as if every secret in the world had decided to enter the same room.
"My mother had another daughter."
"Yes."
"What happened to her?"
Richard did not answer.
Daniel did.
"Helena took her."
Claire grabbed the table.
"Why?"
"We never knew."
"When?"
"Before you were born."
Claire looked at Richard.
"Where is she now?"
"I don't know."
"Is she alive?"
"I don't know."
"You knew this for seventeen years."
"Your mother made me promise."
Claire laughed, but tears were already falling.
"Everyone made promises about my life except me."
Ethan moved closer.
Claire did not push him away this time.
Vanessa studied the wall.
"If there were three daughters, maybe three bloodlines open the final chamber."
Thomas shook his head.
"Not blood."
"What then?"
"Tokens."
He pointed toward Claire's key.
"Eleanor had one."
Vanessa held Daniel's key.
"Our family had one."
"And the third?"
Thomas looked at Richard.
"Helena."
Silence.
Claire understood.
Helena had escaped because she still possessed something they needed.
Or because someone needed her.
A phone rang.
Not Claire's.
Not Ethan's.
A ringing sound came from inside one of the archive boxes.
Daniel opened it.
Inside lay a brand-new phone.
It was already receiving a video call.
Claire answered.
The screen was black.
Then a woman's voice spoke.
Not Helena.
Younger.
Calm.
"Hello, Claire."
Claire's mouth went dry.
"Who is this?"
"You don't know me."
"Where is Helena?"
"Safe."
"Where are the federal agents?"
"Also safe, for now."
Claire looked at Ethan.
"Who are you?"
The woman laughed softly.
"Ask Richard."
Claire turned toward him.
Richard looked terrified.
The voice continued.
"Your mother spent her life trying to keep us apart."
Claire gripped the phone.
"Us?"
The screen came alive.
A woman appeared.
She looked approximately forty.
Dark hair.
Pale eyes.
A face Claire had never seen before.
And yet something about it was unmistakably familiar.
The shape of the mouth.
The eyebrows.
The way one corner of her lips rose before the other.
Claire had seen those features every morning of her life.
In the mirror.
The woman smiled.
"My name is Caroline."
Claire could barely breathe.
"What do you want?"
"Nothing that isn't mine."
"What is yours?"
"Saint Orison."
Claire looked at the hidden wall.
Caroline continued.
"And the thing underneath it."
"What thing?"
The smile vanished.
"You really don't know."
"No."
For the first time, Caroline looked surprised.
Then amused.
"Eleanor took the truth to her grave after all."
Claire raised her voice.
"Tell me what is beneath this place."
Caroline leaned closer to the camera.
"Ask your husband why his family paid for your birth."
Claire slowly turned toward Ethan.
He looked as shocked as she felt.
"I don't know what she's talking about."
Caroline laughed.
"Of course you don't."
A sound came from behind Caroline.
A child.
Claire froze.
Not Lily.
An older child.
A boy's voice.
"Can I go now?"
Caroline looked away from the camera.
"In a moment."
Claire's heart began racing again.
"Who is that?"
Caroline turned the phone.
A boy approximately eight years old sat in a chair.
He was frightened but unharmed.
Around his neck hung a silver oval pendant.
The same symbol Claire's mother had worn.
Claire whispered, "Who is he?"
Caroline turned the camera back toward herself.
"That's the question your mother died to keep you from asking."
The call ended.
Nobody spoke.
Claire immediately tried calling back.
The number no longer existed.
Ethan touched her shoulder.
"Claire."
She looked at Richard.
He had gone gray.
"You know that boy."
Richard shook his head.
"No."
"You know something."
"No."
"Stop lying."
"I swear I have never seen him."
Daniel walked toward the wall.
He stared at the three circles carved into the stone.
Then at Claire's pendant.
Then at the frozen image on the phone screen where the boy's pendant remained visible.
His expression changed.
"Claire."
She turned.
"What?"
Daniel pointed at the symbols.
"Those aren't three keys."
"What are they?"
"Three generations."
Thomas inhaled sharply.
Vanessa whispered, "Eleanor."
Daniel pointed at the second circle.
"Claire."
Then the third.
Everyone looked at the photograph of the boy.
Claire felt cold.
"No."
Daniel stared at her.
"If I'm reading this correctly, the final chamber was designed to open only when the family line reached the third generation."
Claire looked toward the ceiling.
Above them, Lily was sleeping.
Her daughter.
Third generation.
But the boy was wearing the same pendant.
Claire looked at Richard.
Then Ethan.
Then Vanessa.
"What did Caroline mean when she said the Ashfords paid for my birth?"
Nobody answered.
A low mechanical sound suddenly came from inside the wall.
Everyone stepped back.
Stone scraped against stone.
The third circle began turning by itself.
Claire's heart stopped.
"We didn't touch it."
Daniel raised his flashlight.
A narrow seam appeared in the wall.
Cold air escaped from the darkness behind it.
Then something slid through the opening.
A small yellow envelope.
Claire picked it up.
Her name was written across the front.
Claire.
She recognized the handwriting.
Her mother's.
Her hands trembled as she opened it.
Inside was a photograph.
Eleanor sat in a hospital bed.
She was holding a newborn baby.
Richard Ashford stood beside her.
On the back was a date.
Claire's birthday.
Below it Eleanor had written one sentence.
Richard knows who your father is.
Claire slowly raised her eyes.
Richard backed toward the wall.
"Claire."
"Who was my father?"
Before Richard could answer, all the lights in Saint Orison went out.
Darkness filled the chamber.
Then came the sound of running footsteps from the corridor above.
A security officer shouted.
"Mrs. Ashford!"
Claire turned toward the stairs.
The officer's voice cracked with panic.
"Your daughter is gone."
Claire stopped breathing.
Ethan ran.
Claire followed.
They reached the chapel.
Lily's blanket lay on the floor.
The exterior door stood open.
Wind poured into the ruins.
On the altar sat Lily's small white shoe.
Beside it was another red envelope.
Claire tore it open.
Only one sentence was written inside.
You saved your daughter from the cliff once.
The church bell began ringing above them.
One time.
Two.
Three.
Claire ran outside.
Far across the mountain road, headlights disappeared into the forest.
Ethan reached for his phone.
Vanessa shouted for Daniel.
Agents raced toward their vehicles.
Richard stood in the chapel doorway, staring at the message as if he had finally understood something everyone else had missed.
Claire turned toward him.
"What?"
Richard looked at her.
His face held a kind of fear she had never seen before.
"Caroline doesn't want the chamber."
Claire could barely hear him over the wind.
"Then what does she want?"
Richard looked toward the dark mountain road where Lily had disappeared.
"She wants you to open it for her."
Claire gripped her mother's photograph.
"And if I don't?"
Richard's eyes filled with dread.
"Then this time, she won't bring Lily back."
May you like
High above Saint Orison, the ancient bell continued ringing in the darkness.
And somewhere beyond the mountain, Claire's daughter was being carried toward a secret her mother had died trying to bury.
