Chapter 1 - THE VOICE BEHIND THE WALL
The hidden wall slammed shut just as I stepped into the hallway.
Then I heard my son crying behind it.
“Perrin?”
Silence.
Then came a tiny, broken voice.
“Dad…”
My travel bag hit the floor.
I ran toward the sound and tore at the wooden panel until the concealed door ripped free from its track.
Perrin was curled inside the narrow room.
He wore filthy shorts.
His knees were covered in bruises.
His hair was tangled, and his small hands were wrapped around empty air where his stuffed dog should have been.
“Dad… is it really you?”
I pulled him into my arms.
His entire body shook against my chest.
I had been gone for nineteen days.
Nineteen days of business meetings, hotel rooms, airport lounges, and phone calls with the woman I planned to marry.
Rhea had told me Perrin was staying with her.
She had told me he was happy.
She had told me he missed me.
She had lied.
Perrin suddenly pointed over my shoulder.
I turned.
Rhea stood at the end of the corridor.
My fiancée.
The woman who had been living in my home while I traveled for work.
She stared at the broken wall.
Then at Perrin.
Then at me.
I stepped between her and my son.
“Tell me what happened.”
Rhea swallowed.
“It isn't what you think.”
I took one step forward.
“You locked my son inside a wall.”
“I didn't—”
“You locked him inside a wall.”
Her face tightened.
Perrin buried his face against my shoulder.
Then he whispered something that made the blood drain from my body.
“Dad…”
I looked down.
“What?”
His fingers tightened around my shirt.
“Mom never died.”
The hallway became completely silent.
I stared at him.
My wife, Elise, had been dead for six years.
I had watched the coffin disappear beneath the ground.
I had held Perrin's hand at the funeral.
I had spent six years believing I was raising the son of a dead woman.
Perrin's trembling voice came again.
“She hid her.”
I looked at Rhea.
She had gone completely white.
“Who?”
Perrin looked toward the wall.
“Mom.”
Rhea suddenly turned and ran.
I grabbed my phone.
“911.”
But before I could finish the call, Perrin whispered four more words.
“She is still here.”
My heart stopped.
Because from somewhere deep beneath the house…
I heard three slow knocks.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
May you like
And they were coming from behind another wall.
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