Chapter 1 - The Woman With My Face
"There were two women down there, Mommy."
Lily swallowed.
"And the other one looked exactly like you."
Claire Bennett stared at her six-year-old daughter.
Behind them, smoke poured from the basement windows of the Bennett mansion.
Rebecca Bennett was kneeling beside the swimming pool, coughing water from her lungs.
Daniel stood over her, his gray business suit soaked through.
And Margaret Bennett, the woman responsible for the nightmare unfolding around them, was walking calmly toward the garden gate.
Claire caught her movement.
"Daniel!"
He turned.
"Your mother!"
Margaret stopped.
For one brief moment, the seventy-two-year-old woman looked almost amused.
"Really, Claire. Must everything be about me?"
Claire pointed toward the burning house.
"YOU JUST ORDERED SOMEONE TO START THAT FIRE!"
Margaret sighed.
"You're upsetting Lily."
"Don't say her name."
Daniel stepped toward his mother.
"Give me your phone."
Margaret raised an eyebrow.
"Excuse me?"
"Your phone. Now."
"Daniel, darling, you're clearly in shock."
He held out his hand.
Margaret looked at him for a long moment.
Then she smiled.
"You're making a terrible mistake."
Daniel's expression hardened.
"That seems to run in the family."
He took the phone from her hand.
The screen was still unlocked.
The last outgoing call had been placed ninety seconds earlier.
No contact name.
Just a number.
Daniel pressed redial.
A man answered almost immediately.
"Mrs. Bennett?"
Daniel went rigid.
The voice continued.
"The lower ventilation system is burning. The east wing should be compromised within four minutes."
Claire felt the blood drain from her face.
Daniel slowly raised the phone.
"Who is this?"
Silence.
Then the call disconnected.
Margaret closed her eyes.
Not with fear.
With irritation.
"Now look what you've done."
Daniel stared at her.
"Who was that?"
Margaret straightened her burgundy jacket.
"Someone who understands how to follow instructions."
A violent crash echoed from inside the mansion.
Lily screamed.
Claire pulled her daughter against her chest.
Rebecca struggled to her feet.
"Daniel."
Her voice was weak.
He turned.
Rebecca pointed toward the house.
"There's someone still inside."
Claire looked at her.
"My daughter said there's another woman."
Rebecca nodded.
"Her name is Hannah."
Margaret's face changed.
"Rebecca, don't."
Rebecca ignored her.
"She's locked in Room Seventeen."
Claire looked toward Lily.
The little girl opened her fist.
A small brass key rested in her palm.
A number was stamped on its head.
17\.
Claire's heart began pounding.
"How did you get that?"
Lily whispered, "I took it when Grandma grabbed me."
Margaret lunged forward.
"Give that back!"
Daniel blocked her.
"Don't touch them."
Margaret stopped.
For the first time, her son's voice had frightened her.
Rebecca took a trembling breath.
"Daniel, there's a maintenance entrance behind the greenhouse."
He looked at her.
"You remember the house?"
Rebecca's eyes filled.
"I've spent twelve years learning every sound beneath it."
The words struck him harder than anything she could have shouted.
Twelve years.
He had buried her.
He had mourned her.
He had watched their unborn son's tiny coffin lowered beside hers.
And now she was standing in his backyard, pointing toward a prison beneath his childhood home.
Daniel turned toward Claire.
"Take Lily to the front gate."
Claire shook her head.
"There's a woman trapped inside."
"I'll get her."
"Your mother just tried to burn the evidence."
"Claire—"
"What makes you think there won't be another trap?"
Rebecca grabbed Daniel's arm.
"She's right."
Margaret laughed.
"Oh, for God's sake."
Daniel turned toward her.
"Did you lock Rebecca under this house?"
Margaret stared at him.
"You don't understand."
"Answer me."
"I protected you."
"FROM WHAT?"
Margaret's eyes hardened.
"From women who mistake a wealthy husband's affection for ownership."
Rebecca flinched.
Claire felt something cold settle inside her.
Margaret wasn't denying it.
She was justifying it.
Daniel stepped closer.
"Where is Hannah?"
Margaret said nothing.
"Mom."
Her lips tightened.
"Where is she?"
Margaret looked past him toward the smoke.
Then she whispered, "It's already too late."
Claire did not remember deciding to run.
One moment she was standing beside the pool.
The next she was sprinting toward the greenhouse with Lily's key clenched in her fist.
Daniel shouted behind her.
Rebecca followed.
The greenhouse stood thirty yards from the mansion, connected to the east wing by an old stone passage.
Claire had walked past it hundreds of times.
She'd never noticed the narrow metal door concealed behind the climbing roses.
Rebecca pushed aside the branches.
"There."
Daniel pulled the handle.
Locked.
Claire handed him the key.
It didn't fit.
Rebecca shook her head.
"That's for Hannah's room."
"Then how do we get inside?"
Rebecca pointed toward a keypad hidden beneath the stone ledge.
"Six digits."
Daniel stared.
"What's the code?"
Rebecca hesitated.
"Your mother's wedding anniversary."
Daniel entered the date.
The keypad flashed red.
He tried again.
Nothing.
Rebecca looked up.
"She changed it."
Smoke curled from the narrow ventilation grille beside the door.
Claire coughed.
Daniel slammed his shoulder against the frame.
The steel didn't move.
"Again!" Claire shouted.
He stepped back.
Then a voice came from behind them.
"Sir, move away."
Arthur Vale, the estate manager, stood beside the greenhouse.
His right hand was inside his jacket.
Daniel exhaled.
"Arthur, thank God. Get the emergency key."
Arthur didn't move.
Rebecca went rigid.
"Daniel."
He looked at her.
"Don't trust him."
Arthur slowly removed his hand.
A black handgun appeared.
Claire grabbed Daniel's sleeve.
Arthur pointed the weapon toward Rebecca.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Bennett."
Daniel stared.
"Arthur?"
"Your mother gave me very specific instructions."
Claire pushed Lily behind a stone planter.
"Get down, sweetheart."
Arthur looked toward the little girl.
His expression flickered.
Then he raised the gun.
Daniel moved before Claire could scream.
He threw himself into Arthur.
The shot cracked through the garden.
Glass shattered overhead.
Arthur staggered.
Daniel drove him backward into the greenhouse door.
The gun fell.
Claire kicked it beneath the stone steps.
Rebecca grabbed a broken terracotta pot and struck Arthur's shoulder.
He collapsed onto one knee.
Daniel seized his collar.
"WHERE IS THE EMERGENCY KEY?"
Arthur spat blood onto the stones.
"You're already too late."
Daniel shook him.
"WHERE?"
Arthur smiled.
"Your mother planned for this."
Then a heavy explosion shook the east wing.
The greenhouse glass rattled.
A wave of heat rolled across the garden.
Arthur twisted free and ran through the trees.
Daniel started after him.
Rebecca caught his arm.
"Forget him!"
Daniel turned.
"The house—"
"Hannah is still inside!"
Claire looked at the greenhouse door.
A section of the old stone wall had cracked.
Behind it, a maintenance pipe was visible.
She remembered the renovation plans she'd reviewed three years earlier.
The greenhouse had once contained a water-storage system.
The old pipes ran beneath the east wing.
She looked at Daniel.
"The irrigation tunnel."
He frowned.
"What?"
"The original greenhouse plans. There's a service crawlspace beneath the pump room."
Rebecca stared.
"How do you know that?"
"Because I tried to renovate this place, and Margaret told me it was structurally unsafe."
Claire grabbed a loose stone.
"Help me."
Daniel understood.
Together, they pulled away the damaged masonry.
Behind it was a narrow opening.
Dark.
Dusty.
Just wide enough for an adult to crawl through.
Claire looked toward Lily.
Her daughter was trembling behind the planter.
"Baby, look at me."
Lily lifted her eyes.
"Mommy?"
Claire knelt.
"You're going to run to the front gate."
Lily shook her head.
"No!"
"Listen."
Claire held her shoulders.
"The firefighters are coming. You find one and tell them there's a woman trapped under the east wing."
"Don't leave me."
Claire's throat tightened.
She wanted to promise she wouldn't.
But there was a woman locked beneath a burning house.
And Claire had just discovered that her daughter's grandmother had been willing to kill to keep that woman hidden.
She kissed Lily's forehead.
"I am coming back."
Lily began crying.
Daniel crouched beside her.
"Go to the big oak tree by the gate."
He pointed.
"Remember where we played hide-and-seek?"
Lily nodded.
"There's a security guard station beside it."
Another nod.
"Run there. Don't stop for anyone except the firefighters or police."
Lily looked toward the mansion.
Then she whispered, "Grandma said Mommy wouldn't come back."
Claire froze.
"What?"
Lily began sobbing.
"She said that's what happened to Daddy's first wife."
Daniel's face collapsed.
Claire pulled her daughter close.
Then she stood.
"Go, sweetheart."
Lily ran.
Claire watched until she reached the garden path.
Then she turned toward the hole in the wall.
"Let's get Hannah."
The tunnel smelled of rust and wet soil.
Claire crawled first.
Daniel followed.
Rebecca came last.
Above them, the mansion groaned as flames spread through the old wooden framework.
Claire could hear the fire alarm.
The sound echoed strangely through the pipes.
After twenty feet, the tunnel widened.
A vertical ladder rose toward a metal hatch.
Rebecca pointed upward.
"That's the utility room."
Daniel climbed first.
He pushed the hatch.
It opened.
Smoke spilled down.
He pulled himself through.
Claire followed.
They emerged inside a cramped concrete room filled with old pumps and electrical panels.
Beyond a steel door, someone was screaming.
"HELP!"
Claire ran toward the sound.
Rebecca grabbed her.
"Wait."
Claire turned.
"What?"
Rebecca pointed toward the doorframe.
A thin wire connected the lock to a small electronic box.
Daniel stared.
"What is that?"
"A tamper alarm."
Rebecca swallowed.
"Margaret installed it after I almost escaped."
Claire looked at the lock.
"How do we open it?"
Rebecca held out her hand.
"The brass key."
Claire gave it to her.
Rebecca inserted it into the emergency override beneath the box.
A green light appeared.
Then the lock clicked.
The door opened.
Beyond it stretched a long corridor.
Pale green walls.
Fluorescent lights.
Security cameras.
Six steel doors.
And at the far end, a woman stood behind a narrow glass window.
She was pounding against it.
Claire stopped.
The woman had dark brown hair.
High cheekbones.
A heart-shaped face.
Claire's own face.
Not a vague resemblance.
Not somebody who looked like a relative.
The woman could have been Claire's reflection.
Except her hair was shorter.
Her cheeks were hollow.
And there was a pale scar beside her temple.
The woman saw Claire.
Her hands stopped moving.
Then she began crying.
"Claire?"
Claire couldn't breathe.
"Who are you?"
The woman pressed her palm against the glass.
"My name is Hannah."
Claire stepped closer.
"How do you know me?"
Hannah began shaking.
"You don't remember."
"Remember what?"
Hannah looked toward Rebecca.
Then Daniel.
Then back at Claire.
Her voice broke.
"Annie."
Claire froze.
Nobody had called her that name since childhood.
Not even Daniel knew it.
Hannah pressed both hands against the glass.
"You used to call me Annie because you couldn't say Hannah."
Claire took a step backward.
A memory struck without warning.
A yellow bedroom.
Rain against the window.
Two little girls hiding beneath a blanket.
A voice whispering, Annie, don't let go.
Claire grabbed the wall.
"No."
Hannah began crying harder.
"Claire, it's me."
Above them, something exploded.
The lights flickered.
Daniel ran toward the door.
"What's the code?"
Hannah shook her head.
"Margaret changed it."
Rebecca tried the key.
The lock clicked.
The door opened.
Hannah stumbled into Claire.
For one second, the two women stared at each other.
Then Hannah threw her arms around her.
Claire didn't understand what was happening.
But her body remembered the embrace before her mind did.
She held Hannah.
And somewhere in the smoke-filled corridor beneath the mansion, a memory twenty-nine years old finally returned.
Two girls.
Two beds.
One mother singing softly.
Then screaming in the hallway.
A man's voice.
A door slamming.
And somebody carrying Annie away.
Claire pulled back.
"You're my sister."
Hannah nodded through tears.
"Your twin."
Daniel stood motionless.
Rebecca began coughing.
"Everybody move!"
They ran toward the utility room.
Behind them, the corridor lights turned red.
A mechanical voice sounded overhead.
"Emergency containment activated."
The steel fire door began descending.
Daniel shoved Claire and Hannah through.
Rebecca stumbled.
Claire reached back.
"REBECCA!"
Daniel grabbed her wrist and pulled.
The door slammed shut inches behind them.
For one moment, nobody moved.
Then Hannah grabbed Claire's arm.
"Where's Lily?"
Claire turned.
"She's outside."
Hannah's face drained.
"Outside with whom?"
"Firefighters."
"Are you sure?"
Claire stared.
"What?"
Hannah's eyes filled with terror.
"Margaret told me she was going to take her."
Claire felt the ground disappear beneath her.
"Why would Margaret take my daughter?"
Hannah began shaking.
"Because Lily saw the room."
Claire grabbed her shoulders.
"What room?"
Hannah's voice broke.
"Room Zero."
Rebecca went completely still.
Daniel looked between them.
"What is Room Zero?"
Hannah shook her head.
"We have to leave."
Claire tightened her grip.
"Tell me."
Hannah looked directly into her eyes.
Then whispered something that would follow Claire into every nightmare for the rest of her life.
"Your daughter wasn't the first child Margaret brought down here."
They reached the greenhouse just as firefighters broke through the garden gate.
Claire climbed out of the tunnel.
"MY DAUGHTER!"
A firefighter caught her arm.
"Ma'am, you need to move away from the building."
"My daughter ran toward the front gate!"
The firefighter spoke into his radio.
Claire scanned the garden.
The oak tree.
The driveway.
The guard station.
No Lily.
Daniel emerged behind her.
He saw her face.
"Claire?"
She shook her head.
"Lily isn't here."
He turned toward the gate.
"LILY!"
No answer.
A police officer ran toward them.
"Mr. Bennett?"
Daniel grabbed him.
"Where's my daughter?"
The officer looked down at his radio.
"Sir, we have a report that a child was escorted from the property."
Claire froze.
"Escorted by whom?"
The officer hesitated.
"A woman claiming to be her grandmother."
Claire stared.
Then she ran.
But by the time she reached the front gate, Margaret Bennett's black Mercedes was already gone.
On the pavement lay Lily's pink hair ribbon.
And beside it, a small white envelope.
Claire picked it up.
Inside was a photograph taken only minutes earlier.
Lily sat in the back of a car.
Her eyes were red from crying.
Margaret's hand rested on her shoulder.
May you like
On the back, in elegant handwriting, were seven words.
COME ALONE IF YOU WANT HER BACK.
