Chapter 4 - The Secret Room Beneath Vale House
We returned to Vale House just before dawn.
The mansion looked different.
For the first time, I didn't see marble floors.
I saw hiding places.
False walls.
Locked doors.
Things that had been constructed to conceal more than wealth.
Adrian took me to the kitchen.
“Where is the service hallway?”
I pointed.
He looked at me.
“You're certain?”
“I clean it.”
We walked toward the narrow corridor.
The cheap wooden frame was still missing from the wall.
Adrian stopped.
“Your mother hid it here.”
“Why?”
“To make sure someone like you could find it.”
He ran his hand over the panel.
Then pressed a hidden latch.
Nothing.
I remembered the frame.
“There.”
I pointed to a small scratch in the wood.
“What?”
“The frame had a mark.”
He examined it.
Then pressed the mark.
The panel opened.
A staircase descended into darkness.
Adrian took a flashlight.
“Stay behind me.”
“I hate when you say that.”
“I know.”
We walked down.
The room underneath the house was larger than I expected.
Shelves.
Boxes.
Documents.
Photographs.
A child's bedroom.
Two small beds.
One blue.
One white.
I stopped.
“Your sister?”
Adrian nodded.
Then he saw the wall.
There were names scratched into the wood.
ADRIAN.
NORA.
I stared.
My name.
Impossible.
Adrian touched it.
“This was written twenty-four years ago.”
“My name?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
He shook his head.
“This doesn't make sense.”
We searched everything.
The blue bed contained a wooden horse.
The white bed contained a silver bracelet.
Inside the bracelet was an inscription.
FOR NORA.
I looked at Adrian.
“That isn't your sister's name.”
“No.”
“Then who is Nora?”
His face changed.
“You.”
The world seemed to stop.
I remembered my mother calling me by my middle name.
Nora.
Not the name on my birth certificate.
Not the name I used in the hotel.
Nora Grace Bennett.
My mother had always called me Nora.
I had assumed it was sentimental.
It wasn't.
It was a code.
Adrian found another box.
Inside were two birth certificates.
One belonged to him.
The other belonged to a girl.
The mother's name was Elena Vale.
The father's name was Gabriel Vale.
The child's name was Nora Elise Vale.
I stared.
“No.”
Adrian read the document.
Then looked at me.
“You aren't Rebecca Bennett's daughter.”
My hands shook.
“Who am I?”
“You're my sister.”
I stepped backward.
“No.”
He moved toward me.
“Nora.”
“No.”
He reached for me.
I pushed his hand away.
“You're wrong.”
“We need to verify it.”
“My mother—”
“Rebecca raised you.”
“She was my mother.”
“She was.”
“But not biologically.”
He nodded.
I began crying.
“Why didn't she tell me?”
“Because she was trying to keep you alive.”
Adrian found another note.
This one was signed by Elena.
My daughter Nora,
If this letter is ever found, then Gabriel failed to destroy everything.
Rebecca will raise you.
She will love you.
She will tell you nothing.
Not because she doesn't trust you.
Because the world around us is not safe.
Adrian stood beside me.
I read the next line.
Your brother Adrian must never know.
I looked up.
“Why didn't he know?”
Adrian stared at the letter.
“Because my father would have used you against me.”
The final line made my blood run cold.
When Nora is old enough, Rebecca must show her the frame.
It will lead her home.
I held the cheap frame against my chest.
The object I had considered worthless had been a map to my identity.
Then footsteps sounded above us.
Adrian raised his gun.
“Someone's here.”
We extinguished the flashlight.
A door opened overhead.
Two men entered the mansion.
Then a third.
Their voices echoed through the floor.
“Find the maid.”
Adrian leaned close.
“They know you're here.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
The men descended.
Adrian waited.
One step.
Two.
Three.
Then he attacked.
The fight was fast.
One man went down.
Another ran.
The third raised his weapon.
I grabbed a lamp and hit him.
He collapsed.
Adrian stared at me.
“You've been around me too long.”
“I learned from watching.”
He smiled.
Then looked at the man's wrist.
A tattoo.
A black raven.
His face darkened.
“I know that symbol.”
“Who are they?”
“People who worked for my father.”
“But he's dead.”
“They've been waiting.”
“For what?”
Adrian looked at me.
“For me to find you.”
He picked up the raven man's phone.
There was a message.
THE DAUGHTER IS ALIVE.
Another arrived.
BRING HER TO GABRIEL'S OLD CHURCH.
Adrian showed me.
“Why would they want me there?”
“Because that's where my mother disappeared.”
I looked at him.
“You're going.”
“Yes.”
“So am I.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
He frowned.
“It's too dangerous.”
“You just discovered I'm your sister.”
“That is exactly why.”
I smiled bitterly.
“You can't protect me by locking me away.”
He stared.
Then finally nodded.
“Fine.”
We left before sunrise.
But neither of us noticed the camera hidden inside the wall.
Someone had watched the entire discovery.
And they sent the footage to a phone in another room.
The message attached to it contained six words.
May you like
SHE FOUND THE FRAME.
NOW FIND THE OTHER ONE.
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