Chapter 2 - Emily Had Heard the Voice the Night Before
Michael did not rip the vent out of the floor.
His first instinct was exactly that.
Then common sense returned.
He did not know what was beneath the grate.
How far down.
Whether the person was injured.
Whether the metal framing carried electrical or mechanical equipment nearby.
He called estate maintenance and emergency services while keeping Emily with him.
Victoria repeatedly said:
“This doesn’t make sense.”
Michael stopped answering her.
Within minutes, the estate manager located the architectural plans.
The rectangular vent was not part of a normal heating duct.
The oldest section of the mansion had a narrow service corridor beneath the central hallway. Decades earlier, workers had used it to reach plumbing, electrical runs, and mechanical equipment without opening finished walls.
Most entrances had been sealed during renovation.
One remained behind a locked utility door near the old laundry wing.
Michael turned toward Victoria.
“You knew that corridor existed?”
She stared at him.
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
Michael noticed.
Then Emily pulled at his jacket.
“Dad.”
He crouched.
“What?”
Her voice was tiny.
“She talked to me.”
Michael’s stomach dropped.
“Who?”
Emily looked toward the vent.
“The lady.”
“When?”
“Last night.”
Victoria’s head snapped toward her.
Michael saw it.
“What did she say?”
Emily hesitated.
Michael softened his voice.
“You’re not in trouble.”
“She said she was thirsty.”
Michael closed his eyes.
“You heard someone under the floor last night and didn’t tell me?”
Emily began crying again.
“I tried.”
“When?”
“At breakfast.”
Michael remembered.
Emily had said:
“There’s somebody downstairs.”
He assumed basement.
He had been halfway through an investor call and answered:
“Tell Victoria.”
Then left.
He felt sick.
“What happened when you told Victoria?”
Emily looked at the blonde woman across the hall.
Victoria’s face had become unnaturally still.
“She said I was making it up.”
Michael looked at his fiancée.
Victoria said:
“She told me there was a monster under the floor.”
“I said a lady.”
“You said somebody was whispering.”
Emily’s voice rose.
“You told me not to go near it!”
Victoria snapped:
“Because crawling around ventilation grates is dangerous.”
Reasonable sentence.
Wrong expression.
Michael continued.
“What did the woman say after that?”
Emily wiped her face.
“She said her name.”
Michael felt the temperature of the hallway change before Emily even finished.
“She said Rachel.”
His body went completely still.
Victoria stepped backward.
Michael stared at the vent.
Rachel Hart was his older sister.
Thirty-eight.
An attorney.
The woman everyone in the family had been trying to reach since yesterday afternoon.
Victoria had told Michael Rachel left the estate after an argument.
Now a human hand was reaching through the floor.
May you like
And Emily said the woman underneath had given his sister’s name.
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