Chapter 11 — The House Without Daniel
Chapter 11 — The House Without Daniel
The house felt wrong without Daniel.
Not empty.
Wrong.
There was a difference.
An empty house simply lacked people.
This house seemed to be holding its breath.
I stood in the entrance hall at three in the morning, staring at the staircase where Daniel had stood only hours earlier.
The last thing he had said to me was:
“Don't trust the person who brings you the truth.”
At the time, I had thought he was warning me about Evelyn.
Now I wasn't sure.
Detective Collins had spent the entire night searching for him.
Nothing.
No phone.
No car.
No bank activity.
No security footage.
No message.
Daniel had disappeared as completely as if the house had swallowed him.
And I was beginning to fear that it had.
The front door opened.
Detective Collins walked inside.
“Any word?”
She shook her head.
“No.”
I looked at her.
“You found Vivian.”
“Yes.”
“And my mother.”
“Yes.”
“But not Daniel.”
“No.”
I turned toward the window.
Rain covered the glass.
“Then we're missing the most important person.”
Detective Collins didn't answer.
“Tell me the truth.”
“I always do.”
“Is Daniel alive?”
She hesitated.
That was enough.
“You don't know.”
“No.”
I closed my eyes.
Daniel had lied to me.
He had hidden the second will.
He had been investigating Vivian.
He had known about Jonathan.
He had betrayed me.
But he was still my brother.
And I wasn't ready to lose him.
At dawn, we found his car.
It was parked three miles from the Harrington estate.
The driver's door was open.
The engine was still warm.
There was blood on the steering wheel.
My stomach dropped.
“Is it his?”
Detective Collins nodded.
“Yes.”
I stepped closer.
“What happened?”
“We don't know.”
She pointed toward the passenger seat.
A torn piece of fabric lay there.
Dark blue.
I recognized it.
Daniel's jacket.
“Was there a struggle?”
“Possibly.”
“Possibly?”
“There are no clear signs.”
“Then why is his blood here?”
“We're testing it.”
I looked at the ground.
There were footprints in the mud.
Two sets.
One large.
One smaller.
The smaller footprints disappeared near the woods.
The larger ones continued toward the road.
Detective Collins crouched.
“Someone was here.”
“Daniel?”
“Probably.”
“Who was the other person?”
“We don't know.”
I looked toward the woods.
Something inside me said Daniel had been taken there.
I started walking.
Detective Collins grabbed my arm.
“Wait.”
“I can't.”
“We don't know what's out there.”
“He could be injured.”
“And you could walk straight into whoever hurt him.”
I stopped.
She was right.
Again.
I hated that she was always right.
The search continued for hours.
At noon, an officer found something beneath a tree.
A silver watch.
Daniel's.
I picked it up.
The glass was cracked.
The hands had stopped at 2:17.
“What time did the car crash?”
“Approximately 2:20.”
Three minutes.
Three minutes between the accident and the watch stopping.
Detective Collins examined it.
“There's something engraved on the back.”
I wiped away the mud.
The words were tiny.
FOR THE BOY WHO WAS NEVER SUPPOSED TO EXIST.
I looked at her.
“Jonathan?”
She nodded.
“Maybe.”
But then I remembered the fourth child.
The child Margaret had supposedly carried.
The child nobody had mentioned.
The child my mother had apparently been found with.
The entire family was built around children who had been hidden.
Children who had been renamed.
Children who had been erased.
And Daniel had somehow become the only person who knew enough to connect them.
Which made him dangerous.
That afternoon, Detective Collins received a call.
She listened.
Then looked at me.
“They found someone.”
My heart jumped.
“Daniel?”
“No.”
“Who?”
She hesitated.
“Your mother.”
We drove to the hospital.
She had been injured but was conscious.
When I entered the room, she looked at me.
For a moment, neither of us spoke.
Then she whispered:
“Maria.”
I froze.
She still called me that.
Not Elena.
Not some other name.
Maria.
My name.
My mother reached toward me.
I took her hand.
It was cold.
“You knew.”
She closed her eyes.
“Yes.”
“About the babies.”
“Yes.”
“About the switch.”
“Yes.”
“About me.”
“Yes.”
“About Jonathan.”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Yes.”
“About the fourth child.”
She looked at me.
“No.”
That answer frightened me more than anything else.
“You don't know?”
“No.”
“Then who was Margaret pregnant with?”
My mother's face changed.
She looked terrified.
“I never knew Margaret was pregnant.”
I stared.
“But there's a photograph.”
“Someone forged it.”
“Why?”
“To make you believe there was another child.”
“Why would anyone do that?”
She squeezed my hand.
“To make you look in the wrong direction.”
“Where is Daniel?”
My mother's expression collapsed.
“I don't know.”
“Did you take him?”
“No.”
“Did Vivian?”
“No.”
“Did Michael?”
She looked away.
“Mother.”
She began crying.
“Michael is dead.”
I stared.
“What?”
“Michael died years ago.”
I remembered Jonathan.
Vivian.
Evelyn.
All of them had spoken about Michael as if he were still alive.
“Then who have we been dealing with?”
My mother whispered:
“His son.”
“Jonathan?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
She looked directly at me.
“Daniel.”
I stepped backward.
“No.”
“He isn't Michael's son.”
I shook my head.
“Daniel is Edward's son.”
“No.”
“You said the DNA proved it.”
“The DNA did.”
“Then what are you saying?”
My mother whispered:
“Daniel is Edward's biological son.”
I stared at her.
“But Michael raised him.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because Edward wanted him hidden.”
“From whom?”
“From the Harrington family.”
“Why?”
“Because Daniel was the real heir.”
I couldn't breathe.
“The Foundation?”
“The Foundation.”
“The private trust?”
“The private trust.”
“Then Jonathan?”
“Jonathan was the decoy.”
I stared.
“Why?”
“Because Edward knew someone would try to kill his heir.”
“So he made everyone believe Jonathan was the heir.”
“Yes.”
“Then why did he hide Daniel?”
My mother looked at me.
“Because Daniel was the one person Evelyn could never control.”
I thought about everything Daniel had done.
The lies.
The secret investigations.
The missing will.
The strange warnings.
The way he always seemed to know where danger was coming from.
I had thought he was betraying me.
Maybe he had been protecting me.
But one question remained.
“Why did he disappear?”
My mother looked toward the door.
“Because he finally remembered.”
“Remembered what?”
“The night Edward died.”
I froze.
“He was there?”
“He was six.”
“He saw it?”
“Yes.”
“What did he see?”
My mother closed her eyes.
“Edward didn't die.”
The room went silent.
“What?”
“He disappeared.”
“Then whose body was found?”
“A man who looked like him.”
I stared.
“Who?”
“Michael.”
My breath caught.
“My father wasn't murdered.”
“No.”
“He staged his death.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To disappear.”
“From whom?”
My mother whispered:
“From his own son.”
A knock came at the door.
Detective Collins entered.
She looked at my mother.
“I'm sorry.”
My mother nodded.
Detective Collins turned to me.
“We found another piece of evidence.”
“What?”
She placed a plastic evidence bag on the table.
Inside was a small cassette tape.
I recognized it immediately.
The recording from the old studio.
“Where did you find it?”
“In Daniel's car.”
My heart started racing.
“Can we play it?”
Detective Collins nodded.
She inserted the tape into a player.
Static.
Then Daniel's voice.
“If you're hearing this, I'm probably gone.”
My eyes filled with tears.
“Maria, I need you to listen carefully.”
The recording continued.
“I didn't betray you.”
I closed my eyes.
“Everything I did was to keep you alive.”
A pause.
Then:
“But there's one thing I couldn't tell you.”
The tape crackled.
“The person behind the camera isn't Robert.”
Detective Collins looked at me.
The recording continued.
“Robert was working for someone.”
Another pause.
“Someone inside our family.”
My heart pounded.
Then Daniel whispered:
“It's Margaret.”
I looked at my mother.
She shook her head.
“No.”
Daniel continued.
“Margaret has been moving the pieces since the beginning.”
My mother grabbed my wrist.
“Don't believe him.”
The tape continued.
“But Margaret isn't the mastermind.”
Silence.
Then:
“She's protecting someone.”
I stared at the machine.
Daniel's voice became quieter.
“And the person she's protecting is—”
The tape stopped.
Detective Collins cursed.
“The rest is damaged.”
I stared at her.
“Can you recover it?”
“Maybe.”
“Do it.”
She nodded.
Then she noticed something else.
A tiny piece of paper had been attached to the cassette.
Three words.
THE HOUSE. TONIGHT.
We returned to the Harrington estate after dark.
The house was surrounded by police.
Every room was searched.
Nothing.
No Daniel.
No Margaret.
No Evelyn.
No Vivian.
The house felt abandoned.
Until I heard a sound upstairs.
A child laughing.
I froze.
Detective Collins raised her weapon.
“You heard that?”
“Yes.”
We climbed the stairs.
The sound came from the old nursery.
The door was open.
Inside, the wooden horse was moving.
Back and forth.
Back and forth.
There was no wind.
Then a child's voice came from behind the wall.
“Maria.”
I stepped forward.
“Who are you?”
A small voice answered:
“I know where Daniel is.”
Detective Collins looked at me.
“Stay behind me.”
She moved toward the wall.
Then she noticed something.
A hidden speaker.
Someone had installed it recently.
The voice returned.
“He isn't dead.”
I stepped closer.
“Where is he?”
A pause.
Then:
“Beneath the house.”
My heart stopped.
“What?”
The voice whispered:
“There's a room your father never told you about.”
Detective Collins searched the floor.
A faint click sounded beneath the rug.
A trapdoor opened.
Cold air rose from below.
We looked into the darkness.
Stairs descended underground.
I whispered:
“Daniel.”
Then the voice returned.
“He's waiting for you.”
I started down.
Detective Collins followed.
The stairs seemed endless.
At the bottom was a steel door.
It was locked.
On the door was the Harrington symbol.
The same symbol from the key.
Detective Collins pulled out the key.
It fit.
The lock turned.
The door opened.
Inside was a room filled with monitors.
Hundreds of screens.
Every screen showed a different room in the house.
The library.
The kitchen.
The nursery.
The bedrooms.
The basement.
Someone had been watching us for years.
In the center of the room was a single chair.
And sitting in it was Daniel.
His hands were tied.
His face was bruised.
But he was alive.
“Daniel!”
I ran toward him.
Detective Collins stopped me.
“Wait.”
A red light blinked above the chair.
Daniel looked at me.
“Don't come closer.”
“Why?”
He looked toward the ceiling.
“Because she's watching.”
“Who?”
Daniel's eyes filled with fear.
Then one of the monitors switched on.
A woman appeared on the screen.
Margaret.
She was sitting in another room.
Beside her was Vivian.
And behind them stood the woman I had believed was dead.
Evelyn.
But they weren't alone.
A fourth figure stepped into the frame.
An older man.
White hair.
A scar above his eyebrow.
Daniel looked at the screen.
His face went completely pale.
“No.”
I stared.
“Who is that?”
Daniel whispered:
“My father.”
The man looked directly into the camera.
Then smiled.
“Hello, Maria.”
I couldn't breathe.
Edward Harrington was alive.
May you like
And he had been watching us the entire time.
To be continued.
