Chapter 2: His Mother’s Final Warning
Mark stepped toward the bookcase, but Vanessa grabbed his arm.
“Don’t open it,” she whispered.
“You’ll destroy this family.”
“Who’s behind that wall?” Mark demanded.
Lily clung to him.
“Mommy said I must never tell you his name.”
A weak cough came from the darkness.
Then the voice spoke again.
“Mark…
don’t believe her.”
Mark froze.
He knew that voice.
It belonged to Ethan, his older brother—the man Vanessa claimed had stolen their mother’s savings and disappeared six years earlier.
“Ethan?” Mark pressed both hands against the bookcase.
“How long have you been in there?”
Vanessa blocked him.
“He’s dangerous!
I did this to protect you.”
“No,” Lily cried.
“He’s scared of Mommy.”
A folded envelope suddenly slid through the crack.
Mark picked it up with shaking fingers.
His name was written across it in his late mother’s unmistakable handwriting.
Vanessa lunged for it.
“Give me that!”
Mark pulled it away and read the words beneath his name:
“Open this only when you learn what Vanessa did.”
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What Mark found inside the envelope exposed a secret far worse than he imagined.
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