Chapter 3 - Smoke in the Nursery
Marco and I ran.
The nursery was on the third floor, across from Amelia’s old dressing room.
Smoke rolled beneath the door.
“Call the fire department!” I shouted.
Marco hit the emergency release.
The lock clicked.
I kicked the door open.
Smoke poured into the hallway.
A curtain was burning near the window.
Marco grabbed the extinguisher.
I moved toward the flames.
“No!”
He shoved me back.
White powder exploded across the room.
The fire died within seconds.
Then we saw the open wall panel.
Someone had removed an old framed painting.
Behind it was a narrow compartment.
Empty.
Almost.
A piece of yellow paper lay on the floor.
Marco picked it up.
“Hospital stationery.”
Footsteps pounded downstairs.
Security guards arrived.
“Search the house,” Marco ordered. “Nobody leaves.”
I stared at the hidden compartment.
“What was in there?”
Vanessa appeared in the doorway.
Her hair was messy.
Her face was too calm.
“What happened?”
I turned slowly.
“Where were you?”
“In my room.”
Marco looked at her shoes.
Black ash stained the right heel.
Vanessa noticed him looking.
Her face tightened.
“You think I started this?”
“Take off your shoes,” Marco said.
“No.”
“Vanessa.”
“I said no.”
I crouched.
Something blue was stuck to her heel.
A thread.
Satin.
The same color as Lily’s ribbon.
I stood.
“Where is the rest of that ribbon?”
She laughed once.
“You’ve lost your mind.”
“Where is it?”
She backed away.
Marco stepped forward.
“You went into this room tonight.”
“You can’t prove that.”
“I don’t have to.”
He pointed above the door.
A tiny black camera sat in the corner.
Vanessa looked up.
The color left her face.
Marco walked downstairs.
We followed.
Twenty minutes later, he played the footage.
Vanessa entered the nursery at 9:41 p.m.
She carried a flashlight.
At 9:48, she opened the wall panel.
At 9:51, she removed a large envelope.
At 9:54, Lily appeared in the hallway.
Vanessa spun around.
She hid the envelope beneath her dress.
Lily stepped inside.
The video had no audio, but Lily clearly asked a question.
Vanessa grabbed her.
Hard.
Then she took a long blue ribbon from a drawer.
She wrapped it around Lily’s wrist and dragged her from the room.
My hands clenched.
Marco froze the screen.
“Daniel.”
“What?”
He zoomed in.
The corner of the envelope showed beneath Vanessa’s arm.
A word had been written across it.
FOR DANIEL.
I looked at Vanessa.
“Give it to me.”
“I don’t have it.”
“You carried it out.”
“I destroyed it.”
Marco paused the video again.
“No, you didn’t.”
The next frame showed Vanessa leaving the nursery.
No envelope.
She had hidden it somewhere between the nursery and the ballroom.
Marco rewound.
Twenty-two seconds disappeared from the camera recording.
“Someone cut the feed,” he said.
Vanessa smiled faintly.
“You see? Your system isn’t perfect.”
“No.”
Marco turned toward her.
“But whoever cut it didn’t understand the backup.”
He opened another file.
A second camera.
A servant hallway.
Vanessa appeared.
She looked over both shoulders.
Then she pushed the envelope beneath a loose floorboard.
Marco and I ran back upstairs.
He pried up the board.
Nothing.
Vanessa laughed behind us.
“Looking for something?”
Marco turned.
“You moved it.”
“I told you. You don’t understand what you’re dealing with.”
Then a scream came from downstairs.
Rachel.
“DANIEL!”
I ran.
She met me halfway.
Her face was white.
“Lily’s gone.”
My blood stopped.
“What?”
“She was in the bedroom. I turned around for maybe thirty seconds.”
Marco checked his phone.
The east gate alarm flashed red.
A black SUV had just left the property.
Vanessa smiled.
May you like
Then she whispered:
“Now maybe you’ll finally listen to me.”
