Chapter 3 - The Room Nobody Was Supposed to Enter
Rachel did not sleep that night.
Emma was resting in the hospital room.
Lily had been taken home by her father.
Margaret had disappeared.
Vanessa had not returned.
And Rachel had spent hours staring at the photograph of the old dining room.
At 3:17 in the morning, another message arrived.
Unknown number: Go home.
Rachel typed back.
Who are you?
No response.
She typed again.
What happened before Emma was born?
Still nothing.
Then a photograph appeared.
This one was different.
It showed Rachel at twenty-two.
She was standing beside her father.
Behind them was the old house.
Rachel stared at her younger self.
She remembered that day.
Her father had taken the photograph after she graduated college.
She had forgotten about it.
But something in the background caught her attention.
A woman stood behind the upstairs window.
Rachel zoomed in.
Her mother.
Margaret.
But Margaret wasn't looking at the camera.
She was looking at someone inside the room.
Rachel felt uneasy.
She opened an old family album on her phone.
The photograph wasn't there.
That made no sense.
Her father had printed hundreds of photographs.
Why had someone sent her this particular one?
Rachel searched through old messages from relatives.
Then she remembered something.
Her father had once told her never to enter the upstairs study.
She had assumed it was because he kept important documents there.
But what if it was something else?
At sunrise, Rachel returned home.
The house felt different.
Not because anything had changed.
Because Rachel had changed.
She walked upstairs.
The study door was locked.
She tried the handle.
Nothing.
She searched drawers for a key.
Nothing.
Then she remembered the old clock in the hallway.
Her father had always kept a small brass key behind it.
Rachel removed the clock from the wall.
A key fell into her palm.
Her heart began pounding.
She unlocked the study.
Dust covered everything.
Old books.
Boxes.
A wooden desk.
And a locked filing cabinet.
Rachel opened the desk drawers.
Most were empty.
Then she found an envelope.
Her name was written on it.
Rachel Carter.
She opened it.
Inside was a single photograph.
Rachel recognized the people immediately.
Margaret.
Vanessa.
And a man she had never seen before.
On the back of the photograph, her father's handwriting said:
If Rachel ever asks about the chair, tell her nothing.
Rachel stared at the words.
The chair.
Why had her father mentioned it?
She searched the room again.
Behind a row of books, she found a hidden compartment.
Inside was a small metal box.
It contained several documents.
Rachel unfolded the first.
It was an old property agreement.
The second was a bank statement.
The third made her hands shake.
It was a legal document concerning guardianship.
Rachel read it twice.
Then a third time.
Her name was there.
So was Vanessa's.
And beneath them was a date.
The date Rachel had left home for college.
Rachel whispered, "What did you do?"
Her phone rang.
It was Lily's father.
Rachel answered.
"Hello?"
His voice was tense.
"Rachel, you need to come back to the hospital."
"Why?"
"Emma woke up."
Rachel grabbed her coat.
"What did she say?"
A pause.
"She asked for you."
Rachel exhaled.
May you like
Then he added quietly.
"And she said something about a locked room."
