Chapter 1 - BEHIND THE PAINTING
Ethan’s fingers appeared through the vent while I was dragging the ballroom painting away from the wall.
They were small, pale, and shaking.
“Please… help me get out.”
The cry was so weak I almost mistook it for air moving through the old bricks. I dropped my polishing cloth and pressed my ear against the opening.
“Ethan?”
Something scraped behind the wall.
“I’m here.”
The Sterling mansion was nearly empty. Most of the staff had been sent outside to prepare the garden for that evening’s charity dinner. I had been ordered to clean the ballroom alone.
I grabbed the iron poker from the fireplace and forced it beneath the concealed edge of the panel.
“Stay right there,” I said. “I’ll get you out.”
The first strike bruised my palm.
The second loosened the latch.
The third broke it.
A narrow section of wall swung inward.
Ethan lay curled inside a space barely wide enough for his body. A thin blanket covered his legs. An empty water bottle rested beside him. His cheeks were gray with exhaustion.
I reached in and lifted him.
He wrapped both arms around my neck.
“She said everyone will believe that I am missing.”
Footsteps crossed the corridor.
Isabella appeared beneath the ballroom arch.
She wore a cream dress and carried a small brass key between two fingers. Her calm expression vanished when she saw the open panel.
“Put him back,” she said, “and I may let you keep your job.”
I moved Ethan behind my shoulder.
“You locked him in there.”
“You have no idea what you interrupted.”
William entered behind her.
He saw Ethan trembling in my arms. He saw the dark opening in the wall and the key in Isabella’s hand.
Then he kicked her hard in the back.
Isabella crashed onto the carpet.
William bent over her, his face twisted with horror.
“Why was my son sealed behind that wall?”
Isabella did not answer.
She looked past him at Ethan.
Not with guilt.
With warning.
I reached for my phone.
Before I could unlock it, the ballroom doors slammed shut by themselves.
A red light appeared above the frame.
The mansion’s security system had been activated.
May you like
Ethan buried his face against me and whispered:
“She said the doors would lock when the search began.”
