Chapter 3 - THE PHOTOGRAPH UNDER THE FLOORRory reached the nursery first.
The girls were standing beside the bed.
The security monitor had gone black.
Lily was crying.
Rose was holding the golden teddy bear against her chest despite its torn body.
Rory dropped to his knees.
“Are you hurt?”
Both girls shook their heads.
“What happened?”
Rose pointed toward the floor.
“It made a noise.”
I looked down.
A tiny red light blinked beneath the bed.
Rory pulled the mattress aside.
Nothing.
Then he noticed the floorboard near the wall.
One corner was raised.
He pried it loose.
Inside was a narrow metal box.
No lock.
No dust.
Someone had placed it there recently.
Rory opened it.
Inside were six photographs.
I recognized Elena in the first one.
She was leaving a hospital.
In the second, she was walking with Celeste.
In the third, she was standing beside Rory's car.
The fourth showed Lily and Rose sleeping.
The photograph had been taken from inside the nursery.
Rory's face hardened.
The fifth showed Celeste standing outside the mansion at 2:47 a.m.
The sixth was different.
It showed me.
I was standing in the servants' kitchen on my first morning at the estate.
My hands went cold.
“I've never seen that picture.”
Rory looked at me.
“I know.”
The photograph had been taken before I had ever entered the house.
That meant whoever had been watching the family had also been watching me.
Rory flipped the photograph over.
A date was written on the back.
January 8.
Three weeks before I was hired.
Then he found another note.
THE MAID IS NOT THE ENEMY.
Rory stared at it.
I could almost see the thoughts moving through his mind.
“You knew I was coming,” I said.
“I didn't.”
“Then someone else did.”
He nodded slowly.
Rose tugged his sleeve.
“Daddy?”
He crouched.
“Yeah?”
“Why was Mommy scared?”
The question silenced the room.
Rory looked toward the photograph of Elena.
“She wasn't scared.”
Rose shook her head.
“She was.”
Rory's eyes narrowed.
“How do you know?”
“Because she told me not to tell Aunt Celeste.”
My heart stopped.
Rory's face went pale.
“What did she tell you?”
Rose looked down.
“She said Aunt Celeste loved us.”
Rory waited.
“But sometimes people who love you can still do bad things.”
Nobody spoke.
Rose continued.
“Mommy said not to be mad at her.”
Rory sat back.
“Why?”
Rose shrugged.
“She said Aunt Celeste was scared too.”
That changed everything.
Celeste had motive.
She had access.
She had given the bear.
But perhaps she hadn't been the person who placed the device inside it.
Rory stood.
“We're finding her.”
The mansion's security system suddenly came back online.
Every monitor lit up.
One screen showed the front driveway.
Celeste's black SUV was parked outside the gates.
Another showed the east corridor.
A third showed the kitchen.
Then the fourth screen showed something impossible.
Celeste was standing in the dining room.
Inside the mansion.
She was staring directly at the camera.
Rory grabbed his gun.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
He looked at me.
“You're not trained for this.”
“Neither are the girls.”
His jaw tightened.
Then he handed me a key.
“If anything happens, take them to the old chapel.”
“Why?”
“Because nobody knows about it.”
We moved through the corridor.
Celeste appeared at the end.
Her face was pale.
Her hands were empty.
“Rory.”
He raised his gun.
“Don't move.”
She stopped.
“I didn't hurt them.”
“You put the device in their bear.”
“No.”
“You gave them the bear.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Celeste looked at the girls.
“Because Elena asked me to.”
Rory's expression changed.
“What?”
Celeste's eyes filled with tears.
“She knew someone was watching the girls.”
Rory lowered the gun slightly.
“Then why didn't you tell me?”
“Because Elena didn't trust you.”
The words landed like a slap.
Rory stared at his sister.
Celeste continued.
“She believed your enemies would use the girls to get to you.”
“Who?”
“I don't know.”
“You're lying.”
“No.”
She reached inside her coat.
Rory raised the gun again.
Celeste slowly pulled out a bracelet.
A thin gold bracelet with two tiny charms.
One said Lily.
The other said Rose.
“Elena gave me this the night before she died.”
Rory stared at it.
“She told me if anything happened to her, I had to keep the girls alive.”
“By terrifying them?”
Celeste began crying.
“I didn't know the device was in the bear.”
“Then who put it there?”
She looked at me.
“The woman who hired you.”
My stomach dropped.
“I've never met her.”
Celeste shook her head.
“You did.”
She pulled out her phone.
A photograph appeared.
It showed the staffing agency's owner.
The same woman who had interviewed me.
But behind her, reflected in a glass door, stood someone else.
A woman wearing Elena's cream-colored coat.
I leaned closer.
“That isn't possible.”
Celeste whispered, “It was taken yesterday.”
Rory grabbed the phone.
“Who is she?”
Celeste looked at him.
“Your wife's closest friend.”
Rory's face went rigid.
“Marianne?”
Celeste nodded.
“Marianne Vale.”
Then the mansion's front doors opened.
A woman's voice echoed through the hall.
“Rory?”
Everyone turned.
Marianne stood beneath the chandelier.
May you like
She smiled gently.
And she was wearing Elena's coat.
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