Chapter 3 - The Secret Beneath the Cellar
By dawn, the Rossi mansion was surrounded by police cars.
Leo had called nobody.
Yet somehow the police had arrived.
That was the first sign something was wrong.
The second was that the officer leading them refused to meet Leo's eyes.
"Mr. Rossi."
Leo stood at the top of the stairs.
"Who called you?"
The officer hesitated.
"We received a report."
"From whom?"
"I can't disclose that."
Leo smiled coldly.
"Then you shouldn't have come here."
The officer swallowed.
"We have a warrant."
Mateo stepped forward.
"Based on what?"
The officer handed him a document.
Mateo read it.
His expression changed.
"Leo."
"What?"
"You need to see this."
Leo took the warrant.
His eyes moved across the page.
Then stopped.
The search authorization wasn't for the mansion.
It was for the cellar.
Specifically.
The warrant named an investigation Leo had never heard of.
The disappearance of Elena Miller.
Beatrice stood behind him.
Her face went pale.
"That's my mother's name."
Leo looked at the officer.
"When did she disappear?"
"Twenty-two years ago."
"Where?"
The officer hesitated.
"Here."
The mansion became silent.
Leo slowly turned toward the cellar door.
Twenty-two years.
The same house.
The same cellar.
The same family.
And a woman named Elena Miller had disappeared beneath it.
"Open it," Leo said.
The officer frowned.
"Mr. Rossi—"
"Open the cellar."
Mateo unlocked the door.
The police descended first.
Leo followed.
Beatrice stayed close behind him.
The cellar looked exactly as it had the night before.
Stone walls.
Old shelves.
Wine racks.
Dust.
Nothing unusual.
Then one of the officers called out.
"Sir."
Leo turned.
The officer was standing beside the far wall.
"There are scratch marks."
Leo walked over.
He examined the stones.
Four deep lines ran vertically across the wall.
"These aren't scratches."
Mateo crouched.
"No."
He touched the stone.
"They're marks from a lock."
Leo looked at him.
"Behind the wall?"
Mateo nodded.
"There's something here."
They removed the loose stones.
One.
Two.
Three.
Then the wall shifted.
A narrow passage appeared.
Cold air poured out.
Beatrice covered her mouth.
She knew that smell.
Smoke.
Old smoke.
The smell of something burned years ago.
Leo stepped inside.
The passage led to a hidden room.
And inside that room were dozens of boxes.
Photographs.
Documents.
Old newspapers.
Medical records.
Birth certificates.
And one wooden crib.
Beatrice stopped breathing.
The crib was small.
Painted white.
Carved into its side were two initials.
B.M.
She touched them.
"I slept here."
Leo looked at her.
"You remember?"
Beatrice nodded slowly.
"I was a child."
She stepped toward the crib.
"I remember crying."
A tear rolled down her cheek.
"Someone used to sing to me."
Leo looked around.
"Who?"
Beatrice closed her eyes.
"Elena."
Then she noticed something underneath the crib.
A metal box.
She pulled it out.
It was locked.
Leo examined it.
"The silver key."
Mateo handed him the key they had found earlier.
Leo inserted it.
The lock clicked.
Inside was a stack of letters.
The first one was addressed to:
Leo Rossi.
Leo stared at his own name.
The letter was dated twenty-two years earlier.
He opened it.
The handwriting was unmistakably feminine.
Leo,
If you're reading this, they failed to make me disappear quietly.
You need to know the truth about Beatrice.
She is not who you think she is.
She is not a servant.
She is not an orphan.
And she was never supposed to grow up inside this house.
Leo stopped reading.
Beatrice stepped closer.
"What does it say?"
Leo looked at her.
For the first time, he seemed afraid to answer.
The letter continued.
Beatrice is your daughter.
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Mateo stared at Leo.
Beatrice stopped breathing.
Leo read the sentence again.
Then again.
His hands began to shake.
"No."
Beatrice whispered,
"What?"
Leo looked at her.
The world seemed to disappear around him.
"No."
He dropped the letter.
Beatrice picked it up.
Her eyes moved across the words.
She read them.
Once.
Twice.
Then the paper slipped from her fingers.
"I'm..."
Her voice broke.
"Your daughter?"
Leo couldn't answer.
A second letter lay beneath the first.
Beatrice picked it up.
This one was addressed to Elena.
And the final sentence was written in darker ink.
If Leo ever discovers the truth, Victoria will kill Beatrice before he can protect her.
Beatrice looked toward the entrance.
Victoria wasn't there.
But someone else was.
A shadow moved beyond the doorway.
Mateo drew his gun.
"Leo."
The lights went out.
A gunshot exploded through the darkness.
Beatrice screamed.
Leo grabbed her and pulled her behind him.
Another shot.
Glass shattered.
Then silence.
When the emergency lights flickered back on, Mateo was bleeding from his shoulder.
And the wooden box was gone.
Someone had taken the letters.
Someone who knew exactly what Leo had just discovered.
Someone who had been inside the hidden room before them.
And on the floor, beside the blood trail leading toward the passage, was a single object.
A woman's wedding ring.
Leo picked it up.
He recognized it instantly.
It belonged to Lily's mother.
His dead wife.
Which meant the impossible truth was now staring him in the face.
She hadn't died without knowing the secret.
She had been protecting it.
And twenty-two years ago...
she had been protecting Beatrice.
Leo looked at Beatrice.
She was crying silently.
"Who was my father?" she whispered.
Leo had no answer.
Not yet.
May you like
But somewhere beneath the mansion, another secret was waiting.
And this one would destroy the Rossi family completely.
