CHAPTER 1 — The Camera Beneath the Keys
CHAPTER 1 — The Camera Beneath the Keys
The screen flickered under the piano bench, glowing faint blue in the dark.
Emma’s small fingers trembled as she stared at the hidden monitor.
Her stepmother—Claire Mercer—stood in the center of the music room upstairs, calm as a guest at a dinner party. But her voice wasn’t calm.
“Find her. She saw too much,” Claire said.
One of the men hesitated. “And the vault?”
“Forget the vault,” she snapped. “The girl is the key.”
Emma froze.
On the phone, her father’s voice came again, steady and low. “Emma, don’t move. Breathe quietly.”
“Daddy… why is she doing this?”
A long pause.
Then: “Because she thinks I don’t know what she is.”
Suddenly, the camera feed shifted.
A second room appeared—Claire entering a private office Emma had never seen before. Inside was a wall of files… all labeled with Emma’s name.
Adoption records. Medical reports. Security logs.
Emma’s breath caught.
“She’s not my real mom…?” she whispered.
“No,” her father said softly. “And now she’s desperate.”
A loud crash echoed upstairs. Footsteps began spreading across the hallway.
They were getting closer.
“Emma,” her father said urgently, “press the middle E key twice. Now.”
She obeyed.
A hidden latch clicked open beneath the piano.
May you like
A narrow tunnel revealed itself.
“Go,” he said. “And don’t trust anyone in that house.”
