PART 3
Now she looked at me as if I were the last person she ever wanted to see…
Or the only one who could still save her.
“Mr. Rossi,” she whispered, her voice trembling.
I stepped closer.
“Where’s Grace?”
Elena’s eyes shifted toward the doorway.
At the end of the corridor stood my mother, perfectly calm, watching us.
“Elena,” she said coldly. “Come out of that room.”
The housekeeper froze.
I moved between them.
“She isn’t going anywhere.”
My mother’s expression never changed.
“She entered a private room without permission,” she replied. “The poor woman hasn’t been well for quite some time.”
Elena let out a bitter laugh.
“Not well?” she whispered.
I ignored my mother and turned back to Elena.
“Tell me the truth.”
She glanced around nervously.
“Not here.”
I held up Grace’s wedding ring.
“My wife carved a message into that wall before she disappeared. There are bars on the windows and the door locks from the outside. There’s nowhere safer than here.”
The moment Elena saw the ring, tears filled her eyes.
“She never stopped asking for you.”
Those words hit me harder than anything else.
I knelt beside her.
“Is Grace alive?”
For a terrifying moment, Elena said nothing.
Then…
She slowly nodded.
“Yes.”
Relief rushed through me.
Only to disappear seconds later.
“Where is she?”
“I… I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
“They moved her before sunset.”
“Who?”
Elena looked toward the hallway.
My mother was gone.
I rushed outside.
The long corridor was empty.
The security guards had disappeared.
The estate had fallen completely silent.
When I returned, Elena grabbed my arm.
“We can’t use the main hallway.”
“Why?”
“Because I don’t know who still works for your mother.”
She led me to a carved wooden panel hidden behind the hospital bed.
With one push, it swung open, revealing a narrow secret passage.
“My grandfather built these tunnels after the war,” I whispered.
Elena nodded.
“Your mother used them for something very different.”
We stepped inside.
The damp stone corridor stretched beneath the mansion, hidden from everyone above.
Several minutes later, we reached a forgotten storage room behind the library.
Elena lit a small candle.
Its flame illuminated the fear on her face.
I placed Grace’s wedding ring on the old wooden table.
Then I looked directly at Elena.
“No more secrets.”
“Tell me everything.”
She stared silently at the ring…
…before finally beginning the story that would expose every lie my family had hidden for years.
