Chapter 5 - The Mechanical Room
Claire knew she had absolutely no time to lose. If Eleanor convinced Vincent to ship the boys to an overseas facility, she would completely lose access to them, and Eleanor would slowly poison them to death from thousands of miles away.
She needed physical, undeniable proof.
At 2:00 AM, the massive Connecticut estate was completely silent. Claire slipped out of her bedroom, wearing her dark cardigan. She bypassed the motion sensors she had memorized over the years and crept quietly down the back servant stairs.
She was heading for the basement mechanical room.
When she reached the heavy steel door, she found it secured with a glowing, high-tech digital keypad. Eleanor had restricted access to everyone except herself and the automated tech company.
But Claire wasn't just a nanny. Before taking this job, she had spent four years working in commercial HVAC maintenance to pay her way through college. She knew how these systems were wired.
Claire pulled a small hairpin and a pocket flashlight from her cardigan. She popped the plastic cover off the keypad, exposing the raw wiring. With surgical precision, she crossed the red and green terminals.
The heavy steel door clicked and popped open.
Claire slipped inside, closing the door behind her. The room was a massive maze of silver ductwork, humming furnaces, and blinking computer servers.
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She followed the main trunk line, tracing the specific duct that led directly up to the east wing. To the boys' nursery.
👉 What horrifying device is attached to the nursery's air supply?
