It stood at the end of the abandoned west corridor, hidden behind a heavy curtain and two locked security bolts.
Maya followed him upstairs.
“Daniel, don’t do this.”
But Lily walked behind them calmly.
“She said you have to.”
Daniel turned sharply.
“Who said that?”
Lily stared at him.
“Olivia.”
Daniel unlocked the first bolt.
Then the second.
Finally, he pushed the silver key into a small lock he had never noticed before.
Click.
The door opened.
Inside was not a bedroom.
It was a tiny private office.
Dust covered everything except one wooden desk.
Daniel stepped closer.
On the desk sat an old laptop, a wedding photograph… and a sealed envelope with his name written across it.
His hands began shaking.
He opened the letter.
Daniel,
If you’re reading this, then they finally told you I died.
But I didn’t.
Daniel stopped breathing.
Maya whispered,
“What does it say?”
He kept reading.
Your brother paid the doctor to declare me dead after the crash. I woke up two days later. They told me you had already buried someone else under my name.
Daniel’s knees nearly gave out.
Then footsteps sounded behind them.
Slow.
Heavy.
Familiar.
A man’s voice came from the doorway.
“You were never supposed to find that room.”
Daniel turned.
His older brother Richard stood there holding a gun.
But before anyone could move, Lily smiled toward the dark hallway behind him.
Richard noticed.
His face changed.
“What are you looking at?”
Lily whispered,
“Her.”
Richard slowly turned around.
A woman was standing at the end of the corridor.
Alive.
Older.
Scarred.
But unmistakable.
Olivia.
Daniel whispered her name.
Olivia looked directly at Richard and said,
“Tell my husband why you tried to bury me alive.”
