Chapter 5 - BELOW THE MANSION
There was another basement beneath the basement.
Ethan didn’t know about it.
That told me how deep Margaret’s control really went.
Daniel led us to the wine cellar.
Behind a rack of Bordeaux, he pressed a hidden switch.
The entire shelving unit unlocked.
A concrete staircase appeared.
Ethan stared.
“This wasn’t here.”
Daniel looked at him.
“Yes, it was.”
We went down.
The air got colder.
At the bottom was a hallway lined with steel doors.
Not storage rooms.
Cells.
Ethan’s men spread out.
I felt sick.
“What was Margaret doing down here?”
Daniel whispered, “Experiments.”
Ethan stopped.
“What kind?”
“Medicine.”
My stomach twisted.
We opened the first room.
Empty.
The second held restraints attached to a hospital bed.
The third had shelves full of prescription bottles.
Most labels were fake.
I recognized sedatives.
Muscle relaxants.
Cardiac drugs.
Then I saw Noah’s medication.
Dozens of bottles.
Different strengths.
Different dates.
“This wasn’t random,” I said.
Ethan stood beside me.
“No.”
“She was adjusting the doses.”
He stared at the bottles.
“For years.”
A man groaned behind the next door.
We broke it open.
Dr. Samuel Mercer lay on the floor.
Noah’s neurologist.
His face was bruised.
One eye swollen shut.
Ethan grabbed him by the shirt.
“Where is my son?”
Mercer coughed.
“I don’t know.”
Ethan slammed him against the wall.
“Wrong answer.”
“Ethan!”
I grabbed his arm.
“You kill him, we learn nothing.”
Mercer looked at me.
“You’re Claire.”
That bothered me.
“How do you know?”
“Margaret talked about you.”
“What did she say?”
“That you were becoming a problem.”
Ethan tightened his grip.
“What did you do to Noah?”
Mercer’s face crumpled.
“I signed the reports.”
“What reports?”
“The neurological assessments.”
“Were they fake?”
Mercer looked at the floor.
“Yes.”
Ethan hit him.
One punch.
Hard.
Mercer dropped.
Daniel screamed.
I stepped between them.
“Enough!”
Ethan’s chest heaved.
“He poisoned my son.”
“No. Margaret did.”
Mercer spat blood.
“I never gave Noah anything.”
“But you knew.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He looked at Ethan.
“Because she had my daughter.”
Silence.
Ethan stared.
“What?”
“Three years ago, my daughter disappeared. Margaret sent me a video. Told me if I didn’t cooperate, I’d never see her alive.”
I felt the room shift.
This wasn’t one woman hiding pills.
This was an operation.
“Who is Margaret working for?” I asked.
Mercer laughed bitterly.
“You still think Margaret is in charge?”
Ethan knelt.
“Then who is?”
Mercer looked directly at him.
“Your brother.”
Ethan froze.
I knew enough about the Caldwell family to know he had only one brother.
Victor Caldwell.
Dead for twelve years.
Killed in a warehouse explosion.
Ethan shook his head.
“Victor’s dead.”
Mercer smiled through blood.
“No.”
A speaker crackled above us.
Then a man’s voice filled the room.
Older.
Smooth.
Amused.
“Still burying people before checking the bodies, little brother?”
Ethan looked up.
May you like
And for the first time since I met him—
he looked terrified.
