Chapter 1 - THE HAND BENEATH THE FLOOR
The trembling hand that rose through the broken trapdoor silenced every person inside the greenhouse.
Lily dropped the hammer.
“Grandma?”
Her voice cracked.
The hand reached higher.
Thin fingers scraped across the wooden frame.
“Lily... help me.”
Lily fell onto her knees.
She grabbed Evelyn Carter’s wrist with both hands and pulled.
Tom finally moved.
“Mom?”
He rushed forward so quickly that he nearly slipped on the broken boards.
Helen stepped backward.
Her face had lost every trace of color.
“No.”
The single word escaped her mouth before she could stop it.
Tom heard her.
So did everyone else.
Lily leaned into the opening.
The smell rising from beneath the greenhouse was damp, stale, and sour.
A narrow wooden ladder descended into darkness.
At the bottom, Evelyn Carter looked nothing like the elegant seventy-three-year-old woman whose portrait still hung above the fireplace inside the mansion.
Her silver hair was tangled.
Her cheeks were hollow.
Her expensive clothes had been replaced by an oversized gray sweater and loose pants.
A metal chain circled one ankle.
Tom stared down at his mother.
Then he looked at Helen.
“You told us she was in Switzerland.”
Helen’s lips parted.
Nobody heard an answer.
Six weeks earlier, Helen had gathered the Carter family in the library and delivered the news with tears in her eyes.
Evelyn’s memory was supposedly deteriorating.
She had allegedly suffered several episodes of confusion.
According to Helen, a private neurological clinic outside Geneva had accepted her for long-term treatment.
Evelyn supposedly wanted privacy.
No phone calls.
No visits.
No interruptions.
Helen had even shown them an email carrying Evelyn’s name.
Tom had believed it.
Most of the family had believed it.
Lily never had.
Because Grandma Evelyn had promised her something the evening before she disappeared.
“I’ll see you Saturday morning in the greenhouse.”
Saturday came.
Evelyn did not.
Then Lily began hearing sounds beneath the floor.
Three knocks.
A pause.
Three more knocks.
Whenever Lily mentioned them, Helen blamed pipes.
When Lily said she heard someone coughing, Helen claimed rats had gotten underneath the building.
When Lily found a silver button near the greenhouse wall, Helen took it away.
That button had come from Evelyn’s favorite cardigan.
Lily knew it.
Tonight, during the family dinner, Lily heard the knocking again.
This time she followed it.
Now the truth was staring up at them.
Tom climbed through the hatch.
His hands shook as he removed his jacket and wrapped it around Evelyn.
“Who did this to you?”
Evelyn looked past him.
Her frightened eyes found Helen.
Helen turned toward the greenhouse door.
Lily saw her move.
“She’s leaving!”
Two dinner guests blocked the exit.
Helen stopped.
Evelyn gripped Tom’s sleeve.
“Don’t let her near my bedroom.”
Tom stared at his mother.
“Why?”
Evelyn swallowed painfully.
“Because she hasn’t just been hiding me.”
Her eyes moved again toward Helen.
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“She’s been stealing everything I built.”
And for the first time that evening, Helen Carter looked terrified.
