Chapter 1
“Dad... open that wall!”
Lily’s scream tore through the upstairs storage room before I even reached the doorway.
My six-year-old daughter was fighting with both hands to get away from Vanessa, my wife, who had her arms locked around Lily’s waist and was dragging her backward across the rug.
“Stop it!” Vanessa hissed. “You don’t know what you saw.”
Then she clamped her hand over Lily’s mouth.
That was the mistake she could never take back.
I stepped into the room.
Vanessa froze.
Lily’s eyes were wide and wet above Vanessa’s fingers.
I crossed the room in three steps, ripped Vanessa’s hand away, and pulled my daughter behind me.
My palm struck Vanessa’s cheek before I even thought about it.
“Do not touch my child.”
Vanessa stumbled back, one hand on her face.
“You have no idea what she’s doing,” she snapped.
Lily clung to my shirt and pointed at the huge antique wardrobe against the far wall.
“Behind there, Daddy. Behind that wall.”
I looked at Vanessa.
Her face changed.
Not anger.
Fear.
I shoved the wardrobe with my shoulder.
It scraped across the floor, heavy and stubborn, until the wallpaper behind it appeared.
But the wallpaper was wrong.
A rectangle had been cut and patched over.
Too clean.
Too recent.
“What is this?” I asked.
Vanessa shook her head.
“Daniel, listen to me.”
I grabbed the heavy hammer from a toolbox near the shelves.
Vanessa lunged for my arm.
“Don’t!”
That told me everything.
I swung once.
Crack.
Again.
Crack.
The third hit broke through the plaster.
Dust burst into the air.
Lily coughed behind me.
I tore away broken pieces until I saw metal.
A narrow gray door sat hidden inside the wall, bolted shut from the outside.
My blood went cold.
I turned to Vanessa.
“What did you put in my house?”
She pressed her lips together.
Then the room went silent.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
Something hit the other side of the metal door.
Lily whispered, “Daddy... someone’s in there.”
Vanessa backed toward the hallway.
I grabbed her wrist.
“Who is behind that door?”
Her voice came out thin.
“You weren’t supposed to come home early.”
The banging came again.
Harder.
Then a woman’s muffled voice cried from inside.
“Daniel?”
My heart stopped.
May you like
Because that voice belonged to my first wife.
The wife I had buried three years ago.
