Chapter 2 - The Room Beneath the Estate
The first thing I heard after opening the hidden basement door was my wife's voice.
"Adrian..."
I stopped breathing.
For a moment, I thought my mind was creating something I desperately wanted to hear.
I had spent weeks waking up from dreams where Elena called my name.
Weeks imagining I would find her somewhere safe.
Weeks forcing myself to believe there was a logical explanation.
But this was different.
This was real.
Her voice came from beneath the house.
Weak.
Broken.
But alive.
"Elena?" I whispered.
No answer.
Only silence.
Then another sound.
A faint cry.
I grabbed the flashlight hanging beside the hidden entrance and rushed down the stone stairs.
The passage beneath my family's estate was something I had never known existed.
That was impossible.
I had grown up in this house.
I knew every hallway.
Every room.
Every security entrance.
My father had trained me to understand every weakness of the estate.
Every possible escape route.
Every hidden weapon storage room.
But this place...
This underground hallway was invisible.
It wasn't on any blueprint.
It wasn't protected by guards.
It wasn't mentioned in any family record.
Someone had built it to hide something.
Or someone.
The walls were cold and covered with dust.
My footsteps echoed through the darkness.
Every step made my anger grow stronger.
Because I wasn't walking into a secret.
I was walking into a crime.
A crime committed against my wife.
Against my child.
Against me.
I reached the end of the hallway.
There was a large metal door.
Old.
Heavy.
With a lock that had been replaced recently.
I touched the handle.
My hands shook.
Not from fear.
From rage.
"Elena?"
This time, I heard something.
A small movement behind the door.
Then a voice.
"Adrian?"
My knees almost gave out.
I pressed my forehead against the metal.
"Elena, I'm here."
A quiet sob came from the other side.
Not a dramatic cry.
Not a scream.
Just the sound of someone who had been waiting too long for rescue.
"I thought you believed them," she whispered.
My heart broke.
"I never stopped looking for you."
There was a pause.
Then she said something that made my blood turn cold.
"They told me you hated me."
I closed my eyes.
"No."
"They said you chose the family over me."
"No."
"They said you wanted me gone."
My hand tightened around the door handle.
"Elena, I swear to you, I never said those things."
Silence.
Then I heard her crying.
"They locked me here the same night I disappeared."
I froze.
"The same night?"
"Your mother came to the nursery."
My jaw tightened.
"She told me you had decided to leave me."
I stared at the metal door.
"She lied."
"She showed me fake messages from you."
My breathing became heavier.
"Fake messages?"
"She told me you wanted me away from the baby because I wasn't part of your world."
I stepped back.
Everything suddenly made sense.
The arguments.
The missing phone records.
The messages Elena supposedly sent.
The way everyone immediately accepted that she left.
It wasn't a disappearance.
It was a plan.
Someone had carefully created a story.
And I had believed it.
Not because I was weak.
Because they knew exactly where to attack.
They attacked my trust.
"How long have you been down here?" I asked.
Elena was quiet.
Too quiet.
"Elena?"
"Almost two months."
I felt the world shift.
Two months.
My wife had been trapped beneath my own home for two months.
Pregnant.
Alone.
While I searched outside.
While my family watched me suffer.
I grabbed the lock.
"I'll get you out."
"No!"
Her sudden fear stopped me.
"Adrian, wait."
"Why?"
"Because your mother isn't the only one involved."
I stared at the door.
"What do you mean?"
"I heard them talking."
"Who?"
"My mother-in-law."
"And?"
A long pause.
Then Elena whispered:
"Your father."
My blood ran cold.
"Elena, my father is dead."
"I know."
"Then why did you say his name?"
"Because someone used his old office."
I didn't speak.
"Adrian, there are people inside this family who still follow his orders."
I looked back toward the stairs.
The darkness suddenly felt different.
Not empty.
Occupied.
"Who?"
"I don't know."
"Elena, I need you to tell me everything."
She took a shaky breath.
"The night they locked me here, your mother wasn't alone."
"Who was with her?"
"I couldn't see his face."
My hand moved away from the lock.
"But I heard his voice."
"What did he say?"
Another silence.
Then:
"He said, 'Adrian can never know the child is the reason she was chosen.'"
My heart stopped.
The child.
My unborn baby.
Chosen?
"What does that mean?"
"I don't know."
"Elena, tell me exactly what happened."
"I was in the nursery when your mother came in."
Her voice became quieter.
"She looked scared."
"My mother?"
"Yes."
"She wasn't angry. She was terrified."
I frowned.
"Why?"
"Because she received something."
"What?"
"A photograph."
"What photograph?"
"I never saw it clearly."
"What was on it?"
Elena started crying.
"Adrian..."
"Tell me."
"It was a picture of our baby."
I froze.
"That doesn't make sense. Our baby wasn't born."
"I know."
"Then how could there be a picture?"
"I don't know."
The hallway suddenly felt freezing.
Someone had been watching my family.
Planning around my child before my child was even born.
I looked at the lock again.
I needed to open this door.
I needed to hold my wife.
I needed answers.
I forced the lock open with the tools hanging beside the emergency entrance.
After several painful minutes, the mechanism finally broke.
The metal door opened slowly.
And there she was.
Elena.
Sitting on the floor.
Her face was thinner.
Her hair was messy.
Her clothes were torn.
But she was alive.
My wife was alive.
For a second, neither of us moved.
Then she reached toward me.
I crossed the room and pulled her into my arms.
She collapsed against me.
"I knew you would come."
I held her tighter.
"I should have found you sooner."
"No."
Her voice cracked.
"You came."
I closed my eyes.
I wanted that moment to last forever.
But something on the wall behind her caught my attention.
Words.
Hundreds of words.
Carved into the stone.
Names.
Dates.
Messages.
I slowly released Elena.
"What is this?"
Her expression changed.
Fear returned.
"Adrian..."
I walked closer.
The wall wasn't just covered with Elena's messages.
It was a record.
A list.
Of people who had disappeared from the estate.
I saw names.
Employees.
Family members.
People I remembered being told had left.
People who had supposedly betrayed my family.
But according to the wall...
They had never left.
They had been hidden.
I looked at Elena.
"How did you find this?"
She pointed toward the corner.
"There is something else."
I followed her finger.
Behind an old cabinet was another door.
Smaller.
Hidden.
My heart started racing.
"What's inside?"
Elena looked at me.
"I don't know."
"Then why are you afraid?"
She swallowed.
"Because the last time I heard someone open that door..."
She stopped.
"Someone came inside."
I moved toward the hidden door.
My hand reached for the handle.
Then I heard a sound.
A phone ringing.
Not mine.
Not Elena's.
Coming from inside the hidden room.
I slowly opened the door.
The ringtone stopped.
A second later, a voice message automatically played.
My own voice came from the darkness.
"Adrian, if you are hearing this..."
I froze.
Because I had never recorded that message.
And then the voice continued.
"Your wife was never the person your family was trying to hide..."
The recording paused.
Then a name was spoken.
May you like
A name I thought I would never hear again.
"Your brother, Michael..."
