Chapter 7
We reached the vineyard at dawn.
Police first.
Then me.
Grace stayed with Lily at the hospital.
The house looked exactly like Amelia had described it.
White walls.
Blue shutters.
Rows of vines rolling toward the sea.
A beautiful place hiding something rotten.
Detective Harris opened the cellar.
The air smelled damp.
Old wine.
Cold stone.
One officer called from the back.
“Detective.”
Behind stacked barrels was a trapdoor.
Locked from outside.
My pulse roared.
They cut it open.
A narrow stairway led down into darkness.
I followed despite every warning.
At the bottom was a hidden room.
A bed.
A lamp.
Medical supplies.
Old food tins.
And on the wall, carved into wood, were words.
Victor, believe Lily.
I touched the letters.
My hand shook.
Harris found a recorder beneath the bed.
The battery was dead.
Evidence techs replaced it.
Amelia’s voice filled the room.
Thin.
Tired.
Alive.
“If this is found, Nora poisoned me. Edmund helped. Marcus Vale falsified records. They took Lily. They bring her here sometimes so I will behave.”
I leaned against the wall.
The world narrowed to her voice.
“I don’t know if Victor thinks I left him. I don’t know if he thinks I died. But Lily, if you hear this one day, I sang because I wanted you to know I was still your mother.”
The recording ended.
I could not breathe.
Harris touched my arm.
“We need to search the rest.”
They found blood samples.
Sedatives.
Letters never sent.
Then a newer note.
Three months old.
She is being moved before the wedding.
May you like
Before my wedding to Nora.
Amelia might still be alive.
