Chapter 7 - Elena’s Voice
The scratching on the wall was old.
Some letters were deep and jagged. Others were faint, as though whoever wrote them had grown weaker before finishing.
Claire touched Mark’s name.
Behind her, Diane spoke from the doorway.
“Elena was unwell.”
Claire turned.
Diane had not entered the east wing.
“She knew about the accounts,” Claire said.
“She knew nothing.”
“She tried to expose you.”
“Elena tried to steal from this family.”
“And you locked her here.”
“I gave her treatment.”
“You tortured her.”
Diane’s eyes hardened.
“Words become meaningless when frightened people repeat them often enough.”
Claire heard Oliver and Mark shouting from the foyer.
Vale roared in pain.
Then something heavy crashed.
Diane stepped backward.
“Come out of there.”
Claire opened the next room.
It contained filing cabinets.
Hundreds of folders filled the drawers, each labeled with a person’s name.
Employees.
Relatives.
Business partners.
Doctors.
Judges.
Politicians.
Claire found Mark’s file first.
Inside were school reports, medical evaluations, bank records, photographs, and handwritten notes documenting his behavior from childhood.
MARK RESPONDS TO WITHDRAWAL OF APPROVAL.
FEAR OF ABANDONMENT REMAINS PRIMARY CONTROL MECHANISM.
FINANCIAL FAILURE MAY RESTORE DEPENDENCE.
Claire felt ill.
Diane had not merely rescued Mark after his restaurant collapsed.
She had engineered the collapse.
Claire searched the other drawers.
Her own file was near the front.
It began two years before she met Mark.
There were photographs of Claire leaving work, visiting Oliver, shopping, and sitting alone in cafés.
Diane had investigated her before the relationship even began.
One note was underlined twice.
LIMITED FAMILY NETWORK. STRONG ATTACHMENT TO BROTHER. FINANCIALLY INDEPENDENT. MAY RESIST CONTROL.
Another note was dated three weeks before Mark proposed.
SUBJECT BELIEVES RELATIONSHIP DEVELOPED NATURALLY.
Claire heard footsteps.
Diane entered the room.
“Put the file down.”
“You chose me for him.”
“I approved you.”
“You followed me.”
“I protected my son from unsuitable women.”
“Elena was unsuitable too?”
“Elena was ambitious.”
Claire opened another drawer.
“Elena Cruz.”
The file was thick.
The final page contained a death certificate.
Cause of death: accidental drowning.
Date: November 4, 2019.
Claire looked up.
“She died.”
Diane’s expression revealed nothing.
“The police accepted it.”
“But Mark said she disappeared.”
“Mark remembers what I permit him to remember.”
A voice sounded from the hallway.
“Claire?”
The same weak female voice she had heard through the wall.
Claire stepped toward the door.
Diane blocked her path.
“That is a recording.”
“Move.”
“It is not Elena.”
“Then who is it?”
Diane reached for the file.
Claire pulled it away.
The voice came again.
“Please.”
It came from the final room.
Claire shoved past Diane and ran into the corridor.
The door was locked.
She tried the keys.
Diane grabbed her from behind.
Claire drove her shoulder backward.
They struck the wall.
The key turned.
Claire opened the door.
A speaker sat on a table inside.
A wire ran from it into a tape machine.
The room was otherwise empty.
Diane laughed softly.
“You see? A recording.”
Claire approached the machine.
The tape continued playing.
Mark, please.
Don’t leave me here.
The same sentence repeated.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Claire examined the machine.
The reel was not moving.
The sound was not coming from the speaker.
She looked toward the wall.
A metal ventilation grille had been bolted near the floor.
Behind it was darkness.
Claire knelt.
“Can you hear me?”
The voice stopped.
Diane moved toward the door.
Claire shouted into the vent.
“My name is Claire. I’m going to get you out.”
Something scraped inside the wall.
Then a woman whispered, “Diane killed Elena.”
Claire looked back.
Diane was gone.
May you like
The east-wing door slammed shut.
A lock turned from the outside.
