Chapter 4 - THE ROSARY BEADS
The darkness was absolute.
The heavy steel door sealed us inside the airless vault.
Julian slammed his fists against the metal.
“Victoria! Open this door!”
His voice echoed loudly in the small concrete space, but I knew nobody upstairs could hear us.
The basement walls were too thick.
I backed away from the door, my breathing shallow.
“She trapped us,” I whispered.
“We’ll get out,” Julian said, though his voice lacked conviction.
He pulled his cell phone from his pocket.
The screen illuminated the small room, casting harsh shadows across the scattered papers.
“No signal,” he muttered.
I slid down the wall and sat on the cold floor.
My mind raced.
Victoria had locked us in.
Which meant she had another key.
Which meant she planned to leave us here until she finished whatever she had started.
“Why would she lock us in?” I asked. “She already has the estate. She has the money.”
Julian sat down across from me, the faint glow of his phone lighting his face.
“Because of the signature page,” he said. “If she hasn’t found it, she knows I won’t stop looking for it. And if Lily is alive…”
He looked at the torn photograph still resting in his hand.
“If Lily is alive, my father must have found out.”
I thought about the bloody silver key.
“Your father found out she was alive,” I pieced together. “He confronted Victoria. He changed his will to cut Victoria out and protect you.”
“And then he ended up dead,” Julian finished grimly.
We sat in silence for a long time.
The air in the vault was growing stale.
My eyes adjusted slightly to the dim light.
I looked at the scattered papers on the floor near Julian’s feet.
Something glinted.
A small, metallic reflection caught the light from Julian’s phone.
I crawled forward and reached into the pile of documents.
My fingers brushed against something cold and smooth.
I pulled it out.
It was a string of black glass beads connected by a silver chain.
A rosary.
But the crucifix at the end was broken in half.
I held it up to the light.
“Julian, do you recognize this?”
He squinted at it.
“No. My family isn’t Catholic.”
I ran my thumb over the beads.
“I know who this belongs to,” I said, my heart skipping a beat.
“Who?”
“Maria. The night nurse who took care of your father during his final weeks.”
I remembered Maria perfectly.
She was a quiet woman who always wore a black rosary around her wrist.
She had abruptly quit the morning after Mr. Sterling died and moved out of state.
Victoria had told the staff Maria was traumatized by the death.
“If Maria dropped her rosary in this vault,” I said, “she was in here. With your father.”
Julian’s eyes widened.
“Maria was the witness,” he realized.
Answer one: The night nurse was the one who witnessed the signing of the new will.
Open two: Did Maria take the signature page to protect it? Or did Victoria pay her to steal it?
I looked around the vault.
“Julian, shine your light on the desk again.”
He aimed the phone at the heavy metal desk.
I crawled over to it.
If Maria had hidden the page, she wouldn't have just left it in a pile of papers.
I ran my hands along the underside of the desk.
Feeling the cold metal.
Searching for a gap.
A seam.
My fingers caught on something near the back leg.
Tape.
I peeled it back.
A small, folded piece of paper fell into my palm.
I opened it under the phone’s light.
It wasn't the signature page.
It was a bus ticket.
Purchased for tonight.
Departing from the central station at midnight.
And written on the back of the ticket in hurried handwriting was an address.
1402 Willow Creek Drive. She’s safe.
Julian stared at the ticket.
“That’s an address on the edge of town.”
“It’s a safe house,” I said. “Maria didn't steal the signature page for Victoria. Maria helped your father hide Lily.”
The reversal hit us both at the same time.
Victoria wasn't hiding Lily from Mr. Sterling.
Mr. Sterling was hiding Lily from Victoria.
Suddenly, a loud, grinding noise echoed through the concrete.
The heavy steel door groaned.
The lock clicked.
The door swung open, flooding the vault with harsh basement light.
Standing in the doorway wasn't Victoria.
May you like
It was the mansion’s head of security, Marcus.
And he was holding a gun pointed directly at us.
