CHAPTER 6 – THE SECRET BENEATH THE MANSION
CHAPTER 6 – THE SECRET BENEATH THE MANSION
The old chapel collapsed around them.
Michael grabbed Lily with one arm and Grace with the other.
"This way!"
He pulled them through a narrow passage hidden beneath the altar.
Grace stumbled into darkness.
Stone steps descended deep underground.
Behind them...
Another explosion sealed the entrance.
Dust filled the tunnel.
Lily coughed.
"Mommy..."
"I'm here, baby."
Michael switched on an old lantern mounted to the wall.
The tunnel stretched ahead for what seemed like miles.
Grace stared in disbelief.
"Where does this go?"
"Back to the estate."
"What?"
"My grandfather built escape tunnels during Prohibition."
"You've been using them all these years?"
Michael smiled faintly.
"I've been living beneath my father's empire."
Twenty minutes later...
They reached a heavy iron door.
Michael unlocked it with an old brass key.
The room beyond looked like a forgotten archive.
Shelves.
Boxes.
Ledgers.
Photographs.
Hundreds of files.
Grace looked around in amazement.
"What is all this?"
"The truth."
Michael opened a cabinet marked WHITMORE FOUNDATION.
Inside were accounting books spanning decades.
"Daniel didn't just steal money."
"He built an empire."
"Using what?"
Michael placed one folder onto the table.
Grace opened it.
Her blood ran cold.
Children's names.
Ages.
Medical histories.
Adoption records.
Some pages were stamped CLOSED.
Others—
MISSING.
Grace looked up, horrified.
"What is this?"
Michael's voice was barely audible.
"A trafficking network."
Grace almost dropped the folder.
"No..."
"It began as illegal adoptions."
"And then?"
"It became something far worse."
Lily wandered quietly through the room.
She stopped before a faded painting hanging on the wall.
"Why is this picture crooked?"
Michael frowned.
"It shouldn't be."
He lifted the painting.
Behind it—
A small hidden safe.
He stared.
"I've never seen this."
The combination lock had already been opened.
Inside sat only one object.
A digital voice recorder.
A single label read—
FOR WARREN.
Michael pressed Play.
Static filled the room.
Then a woman's voice.
Eleanor.
"If you're hearing this..."
"...I'm already dead."
Grace covered her mouth.
"I loved both my boys."
A pause.
"But only one of them remained my son."
Michael closed his eyes.
Tears rolled silently down his face.
Eleanor continued—
"Daniel knows I discovered everything."
"If anything happens to me..."
"...it was him."
The recording suddenly cut off.
Then another voice interrupted.
Daniel.
Cold.
Calm.
"You should have destroyed this."
Grace slowly turned.
Daniel stood in the doorway.
Behind him—
Eight armed guards.
No one had heard them arrive.
Daniel smiled almost kindly.
"I've spent thirty years looking for this room."
He raised his pistol.
May you like
"And thanks to all of you..."
"...you finally showed me where it was."
