Chapter 6 - THE CHILD'S DRAWING
The rain hammered against the glass ceiling of the conservatory.
“What do you mean, the basement is open?” Sebastian asked, his voice laced with confusion.
My father didn't answer right away.
He stared at the heavy iron key on the floor.
Then he looked at Julian, who was smiling like a man who had just played a winning hand from the grave.
“Thirty years ago,” my father began, his voice rough and heavy, “Antonio Romano had a secret vault built beneath this mansion. The blueprints didn't exist. The contractors were flown in from out of state.”
Sebastian frowned.
“I know every inch of this house. There is no vault.”
“Because it’s not meant to be found by anyone looking for money,” Julian sneered from the floor.
My father tightened his grip on the shotgun.
“The night of the mill fire,” my dad said, looking at Sebastian, “I didn't just transport stolen goods. I transported a person.”
The room went dead silent.
“A person?” I gasped.
My father nodded, tears filling his weathered eyes.
“Antonio handed me a bundle wrapped in blankets. He told me to drive as fast as I could to New York and never look back.”
Frank Ellis stumbled forward, clutching Ruth’s arm.
“The baby,” Frank whispered, his eyes wide with a sudden, horrifying clarity. “The safety inspector’s baby.”
Sebastian froze.
He looked at Julian.
“You had a child?”
Julian’s bloody smile faded.
His eyes burned with a dark, bitter hatred.
“Antonio found out I was stealing from him. To punish me, he didn't just fire me. He took the only thing I cared about. He took my son.”
Julian struggled to sit up.
“He locked him in the basement vault. He told me if I ever crossed him again, I would never see the boy.”
Sebastian looked sick.
“My father would never lock a child in a vault.”
“He didn't lock him in a cage, Sebastian!” Julian yelled. “He locked him in a golden prison. Raised him in secret. Groomed him.”
Julian pointed a shaking, bloody finger at my father.
“And Thomas Walsh drove the car!”
I looked at my dad, my world spinning.
“Dad… is it true?”
My father closed his eyes.
“I didn't know it was a kidnapping, Megan. I thought it was a rescue. Antonio told me the boy was in danger.”
My dad looked at Sebastian.
“Antonio didn't hurt the boy. He raised him. But the vault requires two keys to open from the outside. Antonio kept one. Julian kept the other.”
Julian laughed bitterly.
“And yesterday, I finally found Antonio’s key in his old desk.”
Julian looked at the iron key on the floor.
“I opened the vault tonight, Sebastian. Right before the rehearsal dinner.”
Sebastian’s jaw clenched.
“Where is he, Julian? Where is your son?”
Julian leaned back against the broken orchid pots.
“He’s not a boy anymore, Sebastian. He’s a grown man. A man who spent thirty years listening to the Romano family walk above his head, knowing they stole his life.”
Julian smiled.
“And tonight, he’s not in the basement anymore.”
Suddenly, the lights in the conservatory flickered and died.
The entire mansion plunged into total darkness.
Screams erupted from the dining room as the guests panicked.
“Secure the perimeter!” Sebastian roared in the dark to his loyal guards.
A heavy mechanical clanking echoed from deep within the walls of the mansion.
The sound of massive steel doors sliding open.
Then, a voice echoed through the mansion's intercom system.
It was a soft, calm, terrifyingly polite voice.
“Hello, Sebastian.”
Sebastian froze.
“I’ve been waiting a very long time to meet you,” the voice said smoothly. “Your father taught me everything he taught you. But he taught me in the dark.”
A loud click sounded over the intercom.
“I’ve locked the exterior gates. Nobody leaves. Now, let’s play a game.”
The intercom cut out.
I grabbed my father’s arm in the dark.
“Dad, we have to get out of here.”
“We can't,” Sebastian said, pulling his cell phone out for a flashlight. “If the exterior gates are locked down, the steel shutters on the windows are closed too.”
Sebastian shone the light around the room.
Vivienne was clutching her parents, shaking with fear.
“There has to be another way out,” Vivienne whispered.
I suddenly remembered something.
Sixteen months of cleaning this massive house.
Sixteen months of noticing the things no one else saw.
“Wait,” I said.
I grabbed Sebastian’s arm and pulled the flashlight toward the back wall of the conservatory, where an old, heavy tapestry hung.
“Megan, what are you doing?” Sebastian asked.
“When I was cleaning the library last week,” I said, my heart racing, “I found an old sketch stuck behind a bookshelf. It was a child’s drawing.”
I looked at Sebastian.
“It was drawn by you when you were seven.”
Sebastian frowned in the dark.
“I drew a lot of things.”
“You drew a map of the house,” I explained. “But you drew a secret tunnel. You called it the ‘Pirate’s Escape.’ It connected the conservatory to the old carriage house outside the gates.”
Sebastian’s eyes widened.
“I remember. But I thought it was just a game. My father told me it was a pirate ship.”
“It wasn't a game,” I said.
I grabbed the heavy tapestry and pulled it back.
Behind it was a solid stone wall.
But near the bottom, slightly discolored by age, was a small, rusted iron lever.
May you like
I looked at Sebastian.
“Your father didn't just build a vault, Sebastian. He built a way out.”
