CHAPTER 1 : THE LITTLE GIRL HID UNDER THE PIANO... THEN DISCOVERED HER FATHER'S BEST FRIEND WAS THE THIEF
“Daddy… they’re stealing everything.”
Emma Whitmore's whisper was barely audible over the storm.
Lightning flashed across the mansion.
Thunder rattled the windows.
And somewhere upstairs, glass shattered.
The seven-year-old girl curled tighter beneath the grand piano.
Her small body trembled.
She held her phone with both hands as tears rolled down her cheeks.
Outside the music room, heavy footsteps echoed through the hall.
Men were inside the house.
Bad men.
Emma knew that much.
She had been asleep when the alarm started.
Then she heard shouting.
Breaking glass.
Her nanny screaming.
After that, she ran.
Now she was hiding beneath the enormous black piano her mother used to play before she died.
At least...
That's what everyone told her.
"Daddy?"
Emma whispered into the phone.
"I'm scared."
On the other end of the line, silence.
Then her father spoke.
His voice was calm.
Too calm.
The kind of calm that frightened adults.
Not children.
"Listen to me carefully, sweetheart."
Emma nodded even though he couldn't see her.
Outside the room, a door slammed.
One of the intruders laughed.
"Find the safe."
Another voice replied.
"Forget the safe."
The footsteps moved closer.
"Find the girl."
Emma covered her mouth.
A sob escaped anyway.
The footsteps stopped.
Someone had heard her.
The doorknob slowly began turning.
Emma thought her heart would stop.
Then her father's voice suddenly changed.
"Emma."
"Yes, Daddy?"
"Do you see the gold piano pedal?"
She looked down.
There were three pedals.
The middle one was gold.
"I see it."
"Press it."
"What does it do?"
"Trust me."
The footsteps were now outside the music room.
The door slowly opened.
Emma pressed the pedal.
CLICK.
A hidden mechanism activated.
The wall behind the piano silently slid open.
Emma stared in disbelief.
A secret room.
She had lived in the mansion her entire life and never knew it existed.
"Hurry inside."
Emma crawled through the opening.
The wall closed behind her.
Just seconds later, the intruders entered the music room.
Hidden safely behind the wall, Emma stared at dozens of security monitors.
Every camera in the mansion appeared on the screens.
She watched the robbers searching room after room.
Then one of them stopped.
He reached up.
And removed his mask.
Emma froze.
Her breathing stopped.
"No..."
The word slipped from her lips.
Because she recognized him.
Everyone would have.
It was William Carter.
Her father's closest friend.
The man who attended every birthday.
Every Christmas.
Every family vacation.
The man who called himself Uncle William.
Emma looked at the phone.
"Daddy..."
Her voice shook.
"I know him."
Silence.
Then her father's voice came back.
And for the first time in her life...
She heard fear.
"Emma."
"Yes?"
"Do not let him see you."
"Why?"
Another long silence.
Then her father revealed the truth.
Because William Carter wasn't there to steal money.
He wasn't there for jewelry.
And he wasn't there for the safe.
May you like
"He came for you."
TO BE CONTINUED...
