Chapter 2 - THE VOICE ON THE TAPE The storm had finally moved beyond Vance Manor, but Julian could still hear it inside his head.
He sat alone in a private hospital room several hours after the police had taken Victoria away. Lilly was asleep beside him, wrapped in a white blanket, one tiny hand curled around the stuffed teddy bear that had nearly disappeared into the darkness of the cellar.
Julian stared at the rain sliding down the window.
For three years, he had believed his wife was dead.
Now he wasn't sure she had ever died at all.
The thought was almost too dangerous to allow himself to believe.
A detective named Marcus Reed entered the room carrying an evidence box.
"Mr. Vance."
Julian looked up.
"What did you find?"
Reed placed the box on the table.
"The recordings from the vault."
Julian's stomach tightened.
"There are twelve tapes."
"Twelve?"
"Victoria had one. Your father's vault contained the other eleven."
Reed pressed a cassette into an old recorder.
Static filled the room.
Then Julian heard a woman's voice.
His entire body froze.
"Julian..."
He knew that voice.
He had heard it in dreams for three years.
His wife's voice.
His fingers began to tremble.
"Emily?"
The recording continued.
"If you're hearing this, something has happened to me. And if Lilly is with you..."
The voice broke.
Julian leaned forward.
"...don't trust the story they told you."
He stopped breathing.
"Your father didn't kill me."
Julian stared at Detective Reed.
The tape hissed.
"He saved me."
A second voice suddenly appeared in the background.
An older man's voice.
Julian recognized it immediately.
His father.
"Emily, we don't have much time."
The recording abruptly stopped.
Julian shot to his feet.
"Play it again."
Reed did.
Again.
And again.
Each time the same words struck Julian harder.
Your father didn't kill me.
He saved me.
For three years, Julian had hated the dead man whose portrait dominated the entrance hall of Vance Manor.
Now the hatred had become uncertainty.
And uncertainty was far more frightening.
Across the room, Lilly stirred.
"Daddy?"
Julian immediately returned to her bedside.
"I'm here."
"Mommy was talking."
His heart stopped.
"What did you say?"
Lilly looked toward the window.
"Mommy was talking."
Julian swallowed.
"Did you see Mommy?"
The little girl nodded.
"Before the bad lady came."
"Where?"
Lilly pointed toward the hallway.
"The room with the stars."
Julian exchanged a look with Reed.
"There is no room with stars," the detective said.
Lilly frowned.
"Yes, there is."
She pulled the teddy bear toward her.
"Mommy told me not to forget."
Julian slowly opened the bear's damaged seam.
Inside was a folded piece of paper.
Only four words were written on it.
LOOK BENEATH THE CHAPEL.
Julian stared at the message.
Vance Manor had no chapel.
At least, none that appeared on the official property records.
But his father's estate had been built over a century ago.
And according to the ledger recovered from the vault, several structures had been removed from the modern blueprints.
One of them was marked simply:
CHAPEL — SEALED.
Julian felt the cold return.
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The nightmare wasn't over.
It had only changed shape.
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