Chapter 3 - The Secret in the Cellar
Julian pulled his hand back, sliding it smoothly into his trouser pocket, his expression hardening into stone. ""Delirium,"" he said coldly. ""The child doesn't know what he's saying. Come, Eleanor. Let the doctors do their work.""
""I am not leaving his side,"" Eleanor stated with icy finality. ""Not until the DNA results come back.""
Julian stared at her for a long, silent moment before turning on his heel and walking out, Arthur following closely behind. Eleanor collapsed back into the chair, her mind spinning. The accusation had been vague, yet Julian's reaction had been unnervingly calculated.
By midnight, the boy had stabilized, drifting into a deep, medicated sleep. Eleanor slipped out of the room, leaving two trusted private bodyguards at the door. She drove through the quiet city streets to the Vance ancestral manor—a towering Victorian estate outside Boston. If the boy had come from Clara, clues had to remain in the places Clara once inhabited.
Clara’s old quarters in the east wing had been locked for eight years, preserved like a mausoleum. Eleanor turned the brass key, coughing as undisturbed dust greeted her. Moonlight filtered through stained glass windows, casting violet shadows over abandoned easels and forgotten books.
Eleanor searched methodically: the vanity drawers, the lining of Clara’s coats, the hollow bottoms of antique jewelry boxes. Nothing. Frustrated, she sat on the dusty bed. Her foot bumped against the floorboard beneath the vintage vanity table. It gave a hollow, metallic clink.
Kneeling, Eleanor pried the loose cedar plank loose with a letter opener. Tucked into the cavity was a leather-bound notebook tied with twine, along with an old train ticket stamped eight years ago to Portland, Maine, and an audio cassette tape labeled in Clara’s frantic, jagged handwriting: FOR ELEANOR - IF THEY KILL ME.
Her hands shaking, Eleanor found an old Walkman in the drawer, inserted the cassette, and pressed play.
Clara’s voice, raspy and choked with terror, filled the headphones: ""Eleanor, if you’re hearing this, Julian convinced them I was insane. He didn't lose Leo in the storm. He paid someone to throw the cradle into the tide, but I pulled him out. I hid Leo in the marsh cottage near the old lighthouse. Julian made a deal with the Sterling syndicate to keep the inheritance undivided... Eleanor, he’s coming up the stairs right now—""
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A loud bang echoed from the tape, followed by the sound of scuffling, and then dead static.
Just then, the floorboards outside the bedroom door creaked under the weight of heavy footsteps.
