The knocking came again.
Three slow knocks.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
Clara stared at the chapel floor.
For several seconds, neither she nor Ethan moved.
Victoria lay on the stone steps, one hand pressed against her shoulder where the bullet had struck her.
Blood seeped between her fingers.
Ethan crouched beside her.
“Victoria.”
Her eyes fluttered.
“Don’t…”
“Don’t what?”
“Open it.”
Clara looked toward the floor.
The knocking came again.
This time, louder.
THUMP.
Something was beneath them.
Something alive.
Ethan rose slowly.
“What’s in Room Zero?”
Victoria’s breathing became shallow.
“Not what’s in it.”
She swallowed.
“Who.”
Clara’s stomach tightened.
“Who is down there?”
Victoria closed her eyes.
“The person Richard never wanted you to find.”
Ethan stared at her.
“Who?”
Victoria didn’t answer.
The chapel door suddenly rattled.
Someone was outside.
Ethan turned.
Clara whispered, “We’re not alone.”
The handle moved.
Once.
Twice.
Then stopped.
Ethan moved toward the door.
Clara grabbed his arm.
“No.”
He looked at her.
“We can’t stay here.”
“We don’t know who’s outside.”
“We don’t know who’s beneath us either.”
Another knock came from the floor.
THUMP.
Ethan looked down.
Then back at Clara.
“We’re opening it.”
Victoria suddenly grabbed his wrist.
Her eyes opened.
“No.”
Ethan knelt.
“Tell me why.”
“Because the last person who opened Room Zero…”
Her voice broke.
“…never came back.”
Ethan stared at her.
“Who?”
Victoria’s lips trembled.
“Your mother.”
Silence.
Clara felt a chill run through her.
“Margaret?”
Victoria nodded.
“She didn’t die in the hospital.”
Ethan stopped breathing.
“What?”
“That’s what Richard wanted everyone to believe.”
Victoria struggled to sit up.
“He moved her.”
“Where?”
“Here.”
Ethan looked at the chapel floor.
“Room Zero.”
Victoria’s eyes filled with tears.
“She was alive when he brought her here.”
Clara felt sick.
“How long?”
“Three days.”
Ethan’s face became empty.
“My mother was alive for three days?”
Victoria nodded.
“And nobody helped her?”
“I tried.”
“You?”
“I was sixteen.”
Her voice cracked.
“I was sixteen, Ethan.
I didn’t know what to do.”
“You could have called the police.”
“Richard would have killed you.”
“He was already killing people!”
“I know!”
Victoria’s scream echoed through the chapel.
She immediately winced from the pain.
Then she whispered:
“I know.”
The chapel fell silent.
Clara crouched beside her.
“What happened to Margaret?”
Victoria stared at the floor.
“Richard wanted the name of the man who had helped her hide the evidence.”
“What evidence?”
“Everything.”
“Everything?”
“The accounts.
The disappearances.
The recordings.
The names.”
Clara looked at Ethan.
“And Margaret refused.”
Victoria nodded.
“She told him he’d have to kill her.”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
“Did he?”
Victoria looked at him.
“Yes.”
A terrible silence followed.
Then Ethan whispered:
“Why did you say she died giving birth?” Visit novelping.com for the full chapter.
“Because that’s what Richard told the doctors.”
“Doctors?”
“His people.”
Clara felt anger rise inside her.
“So the death certificate was fake.”
“Yes.”
“And Gabriel?”
“Framed.”
“And Alexander?”
“Hidden.”
“And me?”
Victoria looked at Ethan.
“Stolen.”
The word landed heavily.
“You weren’t adopted because Richard wanted a son.”
Victoria swallowed.
“He took you because he wanted control of Margaret’s legacy.”
Ethan’s eyes narrowed.
“What legacy?”
Victoria shook her head.
“I don’t know everything.”
“But you know enough.”
“Yes.”
“Then tell me.”
Victoria looked toward the chapel floor.
“The company wasn’t built by Richard.”
Clara’s eyes widened.
“What?”
“Calloway Holdings already existed.”
Ethan stared.
“My father inherited it.”
“No.”
Victoria shook her head.
“Your mother created it.”
Clara felt her breath catch.
“Margaret?”
“She was the architect.”
Ethan laughed once.
It wasn’t amusement.
It was disbelief.
“My mother was a nurse.”
“That was the story Richard created.”
Victoria’s voice became quieter.
“She was a financial strategist.”
Clara stared.
“Then why hide it?”
“Because Richard took everything.”
Victoria looked at Ethan.
“He didn’t just steal your mother’s company.”
“He stole her name.”
The chapel door rattled again.
This time, someone shouted.
“Ethan!”
He recognized the voice.
One of the men from the estate.
Clara’s heart raced.
“We have to move.”
Ethan looked at the floor.
The knocking continued.
THUMP.
“Room Zero.”
Victoria shook her head.
“Don’t.”
Ethan looked at her.
“If my mother was down there…”
“She isn’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do.”
“Then what’s knocking?”
Victoria didn’t answer.
Clara stepped toward the altar.
Something caught her attention.
A small metal plate had been embedded into the stone.
She wiped away the dust.
There was an inscription.
FOR THE CHILD WHO WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO SURVIVE.
She looked at Ethan.
“Ethan.”
He came closer.
His face changed when he read it.
“That’s about me.”
“No.”
Victoria whispered.
“It’s not.”
Clara turned.
“What?”
Victoria stared at the inscription.
“That was written before you were born.”
“Then who was it for?”
Victoria’s eyes moved toward the floor.
“The first child.”
Alexander.
Clara frowned.
“But he survived.”
“Yes.”
“Then why does it say he wasn’t supposed to?”
Victoria’s expression became haunted.
“Because Alexander wasn’t supposed to survive.”
A loud crash came from outside.
The chapel doors shook.
Ethan grabbed Clara.
“We’re going down.”
Victoria tried to stand.
Ethan caught her.
“You’re coming.”
“No.”
“You know how to get there.”
“I know what happens when you go there.”
“Then you can tell us.”
He helped her toward the altar.
Together, they pushed the stone platform aside.
A circular iron door appeared beneath it.
Clara stared.
“That’s it.”
Ethan inserted Gabriel’s key.
It didn’t fit.
He tried again.
Nothing.
Victoria whispered:
“Wrong key.”
Ethan looked at her.
“You said this was Room Zero.”
“It is.”
“Then what’s the key?” Find the original chapter at g.com.
Victoria reached into her coat.
Her hand came out holding a tiny silver key.
She looked at Ethan.
“Your mother gave me this.”
“When?”
“The night she died.”
Ethan stared at it.
“Why did you keep it?”
“Because I was afraid.”
“Of what?”
Victoria’s eyes filled with tears.
“That one day you’d come looking.”
She handed him the key.
Ethan inserted it.
The lock clicked.
The iron door opened.
Cold air rose from below.
It smelled of damp stone.
And something else.
Something metallic.
Clara whispered:
“Blood.”
Ethan looked down.
A staircase disappeared into darkness.
The knocking continued.
But now they could hear something else.
Breathing.
Slow.
Heavy.
Human.
Ethan took the first step.
Clara followed.
Victoria came behind them.
They descended.
Ten steps.
Twenty.
Thirty.
The chapel disappeared above them.
The walls became narrower.
At the bottom stood a corridor.
Old lamps flickered along the walls.
At the end was a steel door.
There was writing on it.
Clara approached.
Her heart stopped.
The handwriting looked familiar.
She had seen it on Margaret’s letter.
Nathaniel,
If you ever reach this door, it means Richard failed.
Ethan touched the writing.
His fingers trembled.
“My mother wrote this.”
Victoria shook her head.
“No.”
Ethan looked at her.
“She did.”
Victoria whispered:
“She wrote it for you.”
“But she died here.”
“Yes.”
“Then how?”
Victoria looked away.
Clara’s eyes narrowed.
“What aren’t you telling us?”
Victoria said nothing.
Ethan stepped toward the steel door.
“Open it.”
Victoria didn’t move.
“Victoria.”
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
“Because I know what’s behind it.”
“What?”
She looked at Ethan.
“Your past.”
The knocking stopped.
Silence.
Ethan reached for the handle.
Then the steel door opened from the inside.
Clara jumped backward.
Someone was standing there.
A woman.
Thin.
Pale.
Her hair fell over one side of her face.
She wore an old hospital gown.
Ethan stared.
Victoria gasped.
“No.”
The woman slowly lifted her head.
Clara couldn’t breathe.
She knew that face.
Not because she had met her.
Because she had seen her in photographs.
The woman looked directly at Ethan.
Her lips trembled.
“Nathaniel.”
Ethan’s entire body went rigid.
“Who are you?”
The woman smiled through tears.
“I’m sorry it took so long.”
Victoria stumbled backward.
“No…”
The woman stepped into the light.
“I’m Evelyn.”
Clara’s heart stopped.
Ethan stared at the woman everyone had said was dead.
The sister he never knew.
The girl Victoria had supposedly abandoned.
The woman whose photograph had been connected to his past.
Evelyn reached for Ethan.
And whispered:
“I’m your sister.”
Behind her, something moved in the darkness.
Ethan looked past her.
A second figure stepped forward.
An elderly man.
Silver hair.
A familiar face.
A face Ethan had spent his entire life trying to please.
Richard Calloway.
Alive.
Richard smiled.
“Welcome home, son.”