Chapter 3 - THE WOMAN IN THE APRON
Alexander woke on the basement floor with pain pounding behind his eyes.
His wrists had been secured with plastic restraints.
The guard who attacked him was gone.
So were Celeste and Lily.
Maya lay near the bottom of the stairs.
A thin stream of blood ran from her forehead.
Alexander crawled toward her.
“Maya.”
Her eyes opened slowly.
“Lily.”
“They took her.”
Maya tried to sit up.
Alexander turned his back toward her.
“There is a knife in my jacket.”
She found it and cut through the restraints with her uninjured hand.
Alexander immediately freed her.
“Can you walk?”
“Yes.”
The answer was clearly a lie.
He helped her to the generator room.
The main control unit had been destroyed.
Wires hung from the wall.
Grant had planned the lockdown carefully.
Alexander found an emergency radio inside a locked cabinet.
Its battery was missing.
Maya removed a small silver object from her shoe.
It was a flash drive.
“What is that?”
“Evidence.”
“Against whom?”
“Celeste.”
For six months, Maya had been recording conversations between Celeste and Grant.
At first, she believed they were stealing household valuables.
Then she discovered payments from Vale Medical Holdings to companies that did not exist.
Maya knew enough bookkeeping to recognize false invoices.
Her mother had managed accounts for a small construction company before she died.
Maya had learned to reconcile records as a teenager.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You were never here.”
Alexander had spent most of the year negotiating acquisitions overseas.
He believed Celeste was caring for Lily.
Maya looked at him directly.
“When you were here, you listened to Grant before anyone else.”
The accusation was accurate.
Grant had served Alexander’s father before becoming estate manager.
Alexander trusted him as family.
That trust had created the prison around them.
Maya inserted the flash drive into a backup terminal.
The screen displayed dozens of audio files.
One recording captured Celeste speaking to Grant.
Once Alexander signs the marriage agreement, Lily’s trust becomes reachable.
Another contained Grant’s voice.
The child still remembers too much.
A third recording was dated three days earlier.
Celeste spoke calmly.
We lock Lily in the room, hide her inhaler and blame the maid.
When Alexander returns, he will believe Maya endangered her.
Grant responded.
And if the girl dies?
Celeste was silent for several seconds.
Then she said the words that changed Alexander forever.
Dead children do not challenge inheritances.
Alexander closed his eyes.
Maya placed a hand on the desk to keep herself standing.
“She planned to make it look like I locked Lily inside.”
“Why were you injured?”
“I confronted her.”
Maya had discovered Lily missing after finding the cream rabbit near the pantry.
Celeste caught her searching for the metal door.
She struck Maya with the wine bottle, then ordered her to leave the estate.
Maya refused.
She found Grant’s key on the kitchen counter and opened the room seconds before Alexander arrived.
“Why would Grant leave the key?”
“He didn’t.”
Maya opened her palm.
The iron key she had used was different from the brass key inside the rabbit.
“I stole this copy from his office.”
Alexander stared at her.
“You knew about the room?”
“I knew it existed.”
She looked toward the dark corridor.
“But I did not know what they kept inside.”
A hidden speaker crackled above them.
Grant’s voice filled the basement.
“Now you know too much.”
May you like
A metal panel slid across the generator-room door.
Gas began hissing through the ceiling vents.
