Chapter 1 - THE WIFE BENEATH THE MANSION|
THE NIGHT ETHAN BLACKWELL CELEBRATED HIS ENGAGEMENT TO ANOTHER WOMAN, A MAID FOUND HIS MISSING WIFE’S WEDDING RING BENEATH THE FLOOR.
But the ring wasn’t simply lying there.
Someone had pushed it through a ventilation grille from underneath the mansion.
And when pale, trembling fingers appeared between the brass slats, thirty wealthy guests watched Chicago’s most feared Mafia Don realize that the wife he believed had abandoned him might never have left his house at all.
“Lucy,” Ethan said quietly. “Where did you get that?”
The young maid stood frozen beside the glittering banquet table, Claire Blackwell’s diamond ring trembling in her palm.
Across the room, Vanessa Hart smiled at her.
It wasn’t a friendly smile.
It was a warning.
Six months earlier, Ethan’s wife, Claire, had vanished without a trace.
No goodbye.
No letter.
No packed suitcase.
Nothing.
Ethan had searched obsessively.
Private investigators had combed through Chicago. His men had questioned everyone who might have known something. Security footage had been reviewed repeatedly.
But Claire seemed to have disappeared from the earth.
Vanessa had been the person who finally convinced Ethan to accept the painful explanation.
Claire had left him.
She had abandoned their marriage, their mansion, and everything connected to the Blackwell name.
Tonight, Vanessa was supposed to begin replacing her.
She sat beside Ethan wearing an exquisite ivory satin gown and diamonds worth millions. On her finger glittered an enormous engagement ring that had drawn admiring whispers all evening.
Thirty powerful guests had gathered to celebrate the future Mrs. Blackwell.
Champagne flowed.
Music played softly.
Crystal chandeliers illuminated the enormous dining room.
Everything was perfect.
Until Lucy dropped to her knees to retrieve Ethan’s fallen napkin.
That was when she heard it.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Lucy froze.
The sound had come from beneath the polished wooden floor.
She glanced around.
Nobody else seemed to notice.
Then came another sound.
Scratching.
Lucy leaned closer to the brass ventilation grille bordering the enormous Persian rug.
Something moved underneath it.
Her breath caught.
Pale fingers slowly appeared between the narrow openings.
They were thin.
Trembling.
Desperate.
Before Lucy could scream, those fingers pushed something through the grille.
A platinum diamond ring.
Then they disappeared.
Lucy picked it up.
Her heart nearly stopped.
She had seen Claire Blackwell wear that ring every day.
Now Ethan stood over her, his broad shoulders rigid beneath his perfectly tailored black suit.
“Answer me,” he said.
Lucy opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
Vanessa gave a delicate laugh.
“Oh, Ethan, darling. It’s probably one of Claire’s old pieces. You know how careless she was before she left.”
Ethan didn’t even look at her.
His attention remained fixed on the ring.
He took it from Lucy.
Turned it over.
Then his face changed.
Inside the platinum band was a tiny inscription.
Forever, even when the world turns against us.
Ethan had written those words himself.
Claire had cried when he gave her the ring.
She had promised she would never remove it.
Not willingly.
“Lucy,” Ethan repeated, his voice dangerously soft. “Where was this?”
Lucy looked toward Vanessa.
Vanessa subtly shook her head.
One small movement.
One unmistakable threat.
Lucy’s eyes filled with tears.
“Sir…”
Ethan stepped closer.
“Tell me.”
“Someone gave it to me.”
The room went completely silent.
“Who?”
“I—I don’t know.”
“Where?”
Lucy’s voice broke.
“From underneath the floor.”
Every conversation stopped.
Thirty guests stared at her.
Servers froze beside their silver trays.
Vanessa suddenly stood.
“This is ridiculous!”
Ethan slowly crouched in front of Lucy.
“Show me.”
With a shaking hand, Lucy pointed toward the brass grille.
Vanessa hurried forward.
“Ethan, stop! You’re embarrassing us over some piece of jewelry. Claire abandoned you. She’s gone!”
But Ethan was already kneeling beside the vent.
He placed one hand against the grille.
Then he heard it.
A faint sound.
Almost too quiet to recognize.
A woman crying.
Ethan’s entire body stiffened.
“Who’s there?”
Silence.
He leaned closer.
“Answer me.”
Nothing.
Then—
A shadow moved beneath the floor.
Two trembling hands gripped the underside of the grille.
A woman slowly lifted her face into the narrow strip of light.
Several guests gasped.
Her skin was pale.
Her cheeks were hollow.
Her hair hung messily around her face.
Her swollen eyes looked as though she had spent countless nights crying in darkness.
But Ethan knew that face better than his own.
His hand fell against the floor.
“Claire?”
The name left his mouth like a prayer.
The woman beneath the mansion stared at him.
For one terrible second, neither of them moved.
Then her lips trembled.
“Ethan…”
His breathing stopped.
Six months.
Six months of searching.
Six months of believing she had abandoned him.
Six months of wondering what he had done wrong.
And now his supposedly missing wife was staring directly at him from beneath the floor of the mansion where he had been preparing to marry another woman.
“Claire…”
Ethan’s voice cracked.
“What happened to you?”
Claire pressed her trembling fingers against the grille.
Tears streamed down her face.
“I never left you.”
Behind Ethan, Vanessa stumbled backward.
“No.”
Claire looked toward her.
Vanessa’s face drained of color.
“She’s lying!” Vanessa screamed. “Ethan, don’t listen to her!”
Ethan didn’t turn around.
His eyes remained locked on his wife.
“Claire,” he said. “Tell me what happened.”
Claire struggled closer to the grille.
“She locked me down here.”
A collective gasp swept through the room.
Vanessa shook her head violently.
“No! She’s insane!”
Claire’s voice weakened.
“She’s been keeping me alive just enough to—”
Suddenly, Claire stopped speaking.
Her entire expression changed.
Her eyes widened.
She turned toward something deeper inside the darkness.
Ethan saw fear flood her face.
Not ordinary fear.
Terror.
“Claire?”
She didn’t answer.
From somewhere beneath the mansion came a sound.
A metallic click.
Then—
A heavy door creaked open.
Claire slowly backed away from the grille.
“Oh God…”
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
“What is it?”
Claire stared into the darkness behind her.
“Ethan…”
Her voice was barely a whisper.
“There’s someone else down here.”
The room erupted in frightened murmurs.
Ethan slowly stood.
The grief disappeared from his expression.
What replaced it made several guests instinctively step backward.
He turned toward Vanessa.
She was already retreating toward the doorway.
Ethan’s voice became terrifyingly calm.
“Tell me something, Vanessa.”
She stopped.
His eyes hardened.
“Who did you send into my cellar?”
Vanessa opened her mouth.
But before she could answer—
A violent sound exploded from beneath the floor.
Claire screamed.
“ETHAN!”
He spun toward the grille.
Claire’s terrified face vanished into the darkness.
May you like
And Ethan heard something moving toward her.
Fast.
