Chapter 11 - Lenora Remembers The Night Everything Changed At Vale House
The blaring security alarms echoed through the grand foyer as Adrian burst through the front double doors. Lenora stood at the top of the grand staircase, wrapped in her white shawl, staring down with surprisingly clear eyes.
"Mother, go back to your room!" Adrian shouted over the wailing klaxons. Lenora shook her head firmly, walking down the marble steps with a steady, unyielding stride that defied her usual fragility.
"I remember tonight, Adrian," Lenora said, her voice carrying a terrifying clarity that chilled him to the bone. "Twenty years ago, a man named Victor walked through those exact front doors and threatened to burn this house down."
Adrian grabbed her arm gently, guiding her away from the drafty hallway toward the safety of the library. "Victor is alive?" Adrian asked in disbelief. "Father told me he died in a plane crash over the Atlantic."
"Your father lied to protect our name, just like he lied about everything else," Lenora revealed bitterly, sitting in the wingback chair. "Victor wasn't a business competitor; he was Malcolm’s former partner before they stole the trust fund."
The security system suddenly went quiet, plunging the mansion into an eerie, suffocating hush. The emergency lights clicked off, replaced by the normal amber glow of the crystal chandeliers hanging overhead.
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"Where is Celeste?" Lenora asked, looking around the library with sharp suspicion. "She went into the East Wing before the alarms started, didn't she?" Adrian felt his blood run ice cold as the pieces finally connected in his mind.
"The locked room," Adrian whispered, realizing what his mother had warned him about earlier that morning. He turned toward the double doors, sprinting down the darkened hallway toward the forbidden corridor of the East Wing.
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