Chapter 2 - The Cabinet Beneath the Altar
The private chapel stood beyond the eastern garden, connected to the manor by a glass corridor lined with dead roses.
Mia waited until after midnight.
Rain struck the windows, hiding the sound of her footsteps. She carried Harper against her shoulder, wrapped in a wool blanket. The child was half asleep and warm against Mia’s neck.
Mrs. Bell had not given the phrase.
That meant Mia could not trust her.
It also meant she could trust no member of the staff.
At the chapel door, Mia looked back.
The glass corridor was empty.
She entered.
Moonlight crossed the stone floor in thin silver bars. The chapel had not been used for worship in years. Dominic’s mother had hated it, calling it theatrical. Nathan claimed the building was structurally unsafe.
Yet the candles near the altar had recently been replaced.
Mia set Harper on a wooden bench.
“Stay here, sweetheart.”
Harper rubbed her eyes.
“Are we hiding?”
“For a little while.”
“From the bad man?”
Mia froze.
“What bad man?”
“The man who talks in Uncle Nathan’s room.”
“What does he look like?”
“I don’t know. The door was closed.”
Mia crouched.
“When did you hear him?”
“Yesterday.”
“What did he say?”
Harper frowned, searching her memory.
“He said Daddy had to sign before Friday. Uncle Nathan said Mommy would make trouble.”
A cold pressure spread through Mia’s chest.
“What else?”
“The man said there was another child.”
The wind struck the chapel windows.
Mia took Harper’s face gently between her hands.
“Did he say who the child was?”
Harper shook her head.
“He said the child was the mistake.”
Mia forced herself to smile.
“You did very well telling me.”
“Am I in trouble?”
“No. Never.”
She kissed Harper and crossed to the altar.
The cabinet beneath it was disguised as carved wooden paneling. Mia found a small brass keyhole hidden inside a rose pattern.
The key from Dominic’s envelope fit.
A click echoed through the chapel.
The panel opened.
Inside lay three objects.
A black ledger.
A bundle of letters tied with blue ribbon.
And a photograph.
Mia picked up the photograph first.
It showed Dominic’s father, Julian Vale, standing outside Blackthorne Manor nearly thirty years earlier. Julian had one arm around a young woman Mia did not recognize.
The woman held a baby.
On the back, someone had written:
Adrian, four months old.
He must never carry the Vale name.
Mia’s breath caught.
Dominic had told her his father was a cruel and secretive man. Julian died when Dominic was seventeen and Nathan was fourteen. According to the family history, he had only two sons.
Dominic and Nathan.
Yet the photograph suggested otherwise.
Mia opened the black ledger.
Pages of handwritten transactions filled the first half. Many were dated years before Dominic inherited the company. Payments had been made to private clinics, boarding schools, security firms, and an organization called the St. Orison Trust.
The final payment was recent.
Three hundred thousand dollars.
Authorized by N. Vale.
Mia turned another page.
A list of names appeared.
Most had been crossed out.
One remained.
Adrian Cross.
Status: Located.
She heard the chapel door open.
Mia closed the ledger.
Mrs. Bell stood in the entrance, breathing heavily.
“You must come with me.”
Mia rose.
“Give me the phrase.”
“There is no time.”
“Give me the phrase.”
Mrs. Bell glanced behind her.
“Mrs. Vale, please.”
Mia stepped between Harper and the housekeeper.
“Eleanor rode before dawn. Finish it.”
Mrs. Bell’s expression changed.
“She returned without a shadow.”
Mia exhaled.
Dominic’s note had mentioned only the first part. Mrs. Bell knew the answer.
“You can trust me,” the housekeeper said.
“Why didn’t you say it earlier?”
“Because Mr. Nathan was watching.”
“Who is Adrian Cross?”
Mrs. Bell looked at the photograph in Mia’s hand.
“Not here.”
“Does Dominic know?”
“I don’t believe so.”
“Then Nathan knows more about Dominic’s family than Dominic does.”
Mrs. Bell took Harper’s blanket and wrapped it more tightly around the child.
“You need to leave Blackthorne tonight.”
Mia held up the ledger.
“What is the St. Orison Trust?”
Mrs. Bell’s face tightened.
“A fund used by Julian Vale to make inconvenient people disappear.”
The chapel seemed to become colder.
“Disappear how?”
“New names. New homes. New histories.”
“Why did Nathan make a payment?”
“I don’t know.”
Mia looked at the name again.
Adrian Cross.
“Is he Dominic’s brother?”
Before Mrs. Bell could answer, the chapel lights came on.
Nathan stood beside the switch.
Two men in dark coats entered behind him.
“I had hoped,” Nathan said, “that you would make this easier.”
Mrs. Bell moved in front of Mia.
“You promised no one would be harmed.”
Nathan looked almost offended.
“I promised Harper would be safe.”
Mia’s grip tightened around the ledger.
“You knew about this cabinet.”
“I knew it existed. Dominic changed the lock.”
“Where is he?”
“Still asking the wrong question.”
Nathan nodded to the men.
They advanced.
Mrs. Bell seized a brass candleholder and struck the first man across the face. Mia grabbed Harper and ran toward the side door.
The second man caught her by the coat.
Mia twisted free, but the ledger fell.
Nathan picked it up.
Mia reached the garden.
Rain blinded her.
Harper cried against her shoulder.
Behind them, Nathan shouted, “Do not let her reach the road!”
Mia ran toward the old stable instead.
She knew the front gates would be watched.
She also knew the estate wall had only one unguarded exit.
A drainage tunnel beneath the northern field.
Dominic had shown it to her during their first winter together, laughing as he described how he and Nathan used it to escape boarding-school tutors.
At the stable, Mia lowered Harper into an empty stall.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
“You have to.”
“Mommy, don’t leave me.”
Mia removed the silver recorder from her coat.
The red light was still on.
Every word inside the chapel had been captured.
She put it in Harper’s nightdress pocket.
“Remember the brave-girl game?”
Harper’s lip trembled.
“Yes.”
“Daddy is coming home. When he comes, you give him this.”
“Come with me.”
“I will find you.”
“You promise?”
Mia swallowed.
“I promise.”
A shadow moved outside the stable.
Mia pushed Harper beneath a pile of clean horse blankets.
“Do not make a sound.”
The door opened.
Nathan entered alone.
Rainwater ran from his hair onto his collar.
“Where is she?”
Mia moved away from the stall.
“Already beyond the wall.”
Nathan studied her face.
“You were never as good at lying as you thought.”
He walked toward the stalls.
Mia picked up a riding crop from the wall.
“If you touch my daughter, I will kill you.”
Nathan stopped.
“Harper is the one person I am trying to protect.”
“From whom?”
He looked toward the darkness behind her.
“From the man who is coming to claim this house.”
A figure stepped into the doorway.
May you like
The stranger’s face was hidden by the rain.
But the ring on his right hand matched the ring worn by Julian Vale in the photograph.
