Chapter 3 - The Door Celeste Sealed
The west staircase had remained closed for three years.
After Celeste’s death, Victor ordered the upper corridor sealed. He said the rooms contained too many memories. The staff accepted the explanation, but Lily knew it was not the whole truth.
On Celeste’s final night in the mansion, she had taken Lily aside.
They stood in the dark kitchen while the rest of the house slept.
Celeste had looked exhausted. A bruise darkened her wrist, hidden beneath the sleeve of her nightgown.
“If anything happens to me,” she whispered, “protect Ethan from anyone who asks about the red room.”
Lily had thought Celeste was frightened by grief and medication.
“What red room?”
Celeste placed a small gold key in Lily’s palm.
“The one Victor does not know exists.”
Lily stared at it.
Celeste closed Lily’s fingers around the key.
“Trust no one who wants control of the foundation.”
“What is inside?”
“Proof.”
“Proof of what?”
Celeste looked toward the hallway.
Before she could answer, footsteps approached.
Celeste took back the key and slipped it onto the chain around her neck.
Victor entered the kitchen seconds later.
Celeste smiled as though nothing had happened.
The next morning, she was found unconscious in her car after it struck the stone wall near the south gate. She died at the hospital.
The gold key was never listed among her belongings.
Lily had searched for it for years.
Now Ethan had found it.
She hurried along the west corridor, following the faint sound of his shoes against the floor.
“Ethan?”
No answer.
The black door at the end of the corridor stood open.
Beyond it, a narrow staircase descended into darkness.
Lily switched on her phone light.
“Ethan, it’s Lily.”
A quiet voice answered from below.
“She said Mommy was bad.”
Lily followed the staircase.
The air became colder as she descended. At the bottom, she found Ethan sitting beside another door. This one was painted dark red.
He held the gold key in both hands.
“Where did you find it?”
“In the yellow dress.”
Lily crouched beside him.
“The pocket?”
He nodded. “It was sewn inside.”
Serena must have hidden the key in the old family dress, expecting no one to use the garment again. By choosing it for the portrait, she had unknowingly placed the key in Ethan’s hands.
Lily touched the red door.
The lock matched the key.
“What did Serena say about your mother?”
Ethan looked down.
“She said Mommy stole from Daddy.”
Lily felt anger rise in her chest.
“That isn’t true.”
“She said Mommy made the red room because she wanted to take everything.”
Lily glanced behind them.
“Did Serena see you come down here?”
Ethan shook his head.
“Then we need to go back upstairs.”
“But Mommy left something.”
“How do you know?”
Ethan pointed at the door.
A small brass plate was fixed beneath the lock.
Words had been engraved into it.
For Ethan, when the house begins to lie.
Lily’s throat tightened.
Celeste had known.
She had expected this day.
Lily took the key from Ethan and inserted it into the lock.
The mechanism clicked.
Before she could turn the handle, footsteps sounded on the staircase.
Serena’s voice drifted down.
“Ethan?”
Lily removed the key and pulled the child behind a row of storage cabinets.
Serena reached the bottom.
She stood before the red door.
For several seconds, she did not move.
Then she placed one hand against the wood.
“You should have stayed buried,” she whispered.
A man answered from the shadows behind her.
“You said the key was destroyed.”
Lily recognized the voice from Serena’s phone call.
Conrad.
“I thought it was,” Serena replied.
“If the boy opens that room, we lose everything.”
“He won’t.”
“How can you be certain?”
May you like
Serena turned toward the cabinets where Lily and Ethan were hiding.
“Because I know he’s down here.”
