The stairs shook with the crash of footsteps. Ava's legs ached, but Caldwell didn't wait. She stretched out and yanked on a slender railing forcefully.
There was a faint click, and a section of the wall groaned inward.
Adrian's eyes widened. "What the?"
"In," Caldwell ordered, shoving them forward.
Ava and Adrian crawled into the black gap, Caldwell close behind her. She forced the wall shut just as the voices of the invaders appeared on the landing.
The space was cramped, cold, and smelled vaguely of old wood and dust. A single bulb sputtered to life above them, casting the narrow passageway in a dingy yellow glow.
"What is this?" Ava whispered, her voice trembling.
Caldwell straightened, her breathing coming in harsh but steady gasps. "Your parents had this constructed when they perceived the danger closing in around them. Safe rooms. Hidden passages. The penthouse isn't indulgence it's a fortress."
Adrian's eyes scoured the walls, his jaw tight. "A fortress that failed to protect them."
Caldwell flinched. Her fist tightened around the journal she clutched beneath her arm. "They thought they could outsmart everyone. But they underestimated how far their enemies would go.".
Ava's stomach churned. "Enemies? Who?"
Caldwell met her gaze, and for a moment, the housekeeper facade dropped. "The people your parents once trusted. Partners. Friends. They hungered for power control of what your family had built. And when your parents refused…" Her voice dipped. "They disappeared."
Adrian's fists clenched. "And you kept us trapped here all these years instead of telling us the truth?"
"I kept you alive," Caldwell snapped, her voice cutting through the thick silence. "You think you were abandoned? No. You were hidden. Because if those men knew where you were, you'd have been taken away like your parents."
Ava's throat tightened, her head spinning. "So what are we supposed to do now? Keep running? Keep hiding?"
Caldwell's gaze flicked to the narrow hallway that extended deeper into the concealed passageway. "No," she said, her voice icy. "Now, you start learning the truth. Because if you don't understand what your parents left behind" She held up the journal. "you won't survive what's to come."
There was a firm thud on the opposite side of the wall. The intruders were searching. Nearer.
Adrian's voice dropped to a threatening snarl. "Then open the journal. Now."
Caldwell settled onto the thin bench secured to the wall. With steady hands though her eyes were distraught she opened the leather diary. Dust exploded from its spine, carrying seventeen years of silence away with it.
Adrian watched her move forward tensely, like a spring coiled and ready to pounce. Ava's palms moistened, heart pounding as though it already understood the words would change everything.
Caldwell opened to the first filled page and began to read aloud, her voice soft but heavy:
"If you're reading this, then our enemies have gotten too close. Ava, Adrian our children this was never the life we wanted for you. We built an empire, but we built it on unstable foundations. And when we tried to walk away, they gave us a choice: surrender everything, or disappear."
Ava's breath caught. Her parents' handwriting looked frantic, letters dug deep into the page, as though written in a state of terror.
Caldwell turned the page.
"There are people who will say we betrayed them. That we stole what was theirs. Do not believe them. The truth is more dangerous: we uncovered something they wanted buried. We had proof. Proof of crimes so powerful, it could destroy them all."
She stopped. Closed the book.
Adrian's voice sliced through curt. "What crimes? Who are they?"
Caldwell's jaw twitched. "The ones at your door. The same ones who made your parents vanish."
Ava's mind reeled. The penthouse walls, the cameras, Caldwell's steely grasp it all added up now. They weren't raised for protection. They were raised in secret.
But Adrian wasn't done. His voice dropped, low and threatening. "So this isn't about money.
"No." Caldwell's eyes flicked to the journal, then back to the twins. "It's power. The kind that destroys everything in its way."
Ava hadn't even had time to reply before the wall they were leaning against trembled with a resounding crash. Muffled voices. The intruders were closer searching the hidden passages now.
Caldwell shut the journal. "We don't have time for the entire story. All you need to understand is this if they catch you, they'll utilize you to finish what they started with your parents."
Ava's stomach contorted. "Use us for what?"
Caldwell faced her, eyes dark with something Ava had never seen before. Pity.
"You're not just heirs," she whispered. "You're the only proof your parents are still alive."
The pounding on the wall grew louder. Dust rained down from the ceiling. Ava flinched at every crash, each one a warning that this fragile haven of a secret hallway was seconds from collapsing.
Adrian's fists clenched. "If our parents are alive, then where are they? Why haven't they come back for us?"
Caldwell's gaze turned hard. "Because if they expose themselves, they die. And worse so do you."
Ava's throat tightened. "You mean… they've been monitoring us the entire time?"
Caldwell hesitated. Her silence spoke louder than any confirmation.
The leather cover of the diary dug into Ava's hands as she clenched it. Seventeen years of birthday candles untouched, of inquiries answered by unyielding walls all of it suddenly had teeth.
A second forceful crash rocked the hidden door. Splinters burst. The invaders were seconds away.
Caldwell's composure finally cracked. She grabbed Adrian's arm, her voice low but desperate. "Listen to me. Your parents left me with one instruction: keep you alive until the time came. It has."
Adrian wrenched free, his eyes blazing. "And we're supposed to trust you? After all these years of lies?
Before Caldwell could answer, the wall behind them groaned. A narrow part swung inward with a long, grinding shriek, and a pitch-black tunnel sloped downward.
Ava stopped. "What is it?"
Caldwell didn't stop. She thrust them toward it. "The only way out."
Adrian stared into the darkness. "Or the only way to bury us."
The wall behind them rattled again. Voices shouted closer.
Caldwell's voice dropped to a low pitch, urgent in its desperation. "Choose, now. Remain, and they take you. Leave, and you discover the truth."
The hidden door flew open, a sliver of light cutting into the cavern.
Ava's hand found Adrian's. She made the choice for both of them.
"Run.