The strength she had been holding together began to break.
Victoria felt a strange, unbearable pull in her chest.
She did not yet know if this child was truly family.
She did not know what had happened to Anna.
She did not understand why the sister she had mourned for twenty-eight years had stayed away.
But she knew one thing.
Lucy was not leaving Hale House alone.
Edward touched Victoria’s shoulder.
“We need to discuss this privately.”
Victoria looked at him.
For reasons she could not explain, she suddenly disliked the urgency in his voice.
“Later.”
“Victoria.”
“I said later.”
His jaw tightened.
Lucy squeezed Victoria’s fingers.
“There’s something else.”
Victoria looked down.
“What?”
“My mom said if you didn’t believe me…”
Lucy reached into the pocket of her dress.
She pulled out a tiny brass key.
“…I should ask you about the room behind the blue wall.”
Victoria stopped breathing for the second time that night.
No one knew about the blue wall.
No one except Victoria.
Anna.
And one other person.
Their father.
Edward’s face went white.
And Victoria saw it.
Only for a second.
Fear.
Not confusion.
Not surprise.
Fear.
PART TWO — THE ROOM BEHIND THE BLUE WALL
The party ended forty-three minutes early.
Victoria offered no explanation.
She simply asked her event manager to thank the guests, apologize for the sudden family emergency, and arrange transportation for anyone who needed it.
Rumors would spread through Charleston before midnight.
Victoria didn’t care.
Lucy sat at the kitchen table wrapped in one of Victoria’s soft cardigans, eating tomato soup and grilled cheese as though she had not seen a proper meal in days.
Victoria sat across from her.
She wanted to ask a hundred questions.
Instead, she made herself wait.
Lucy had been interrogated enough by life.
“Slow down,” Victoria said softly. “There’s more.”
Lucy looked embarrassed.
“Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize for being hungry.”
The words hit Victoria strangely.
Anna had said that once.
They had been children.
Their father had punished Anna for taking biscuits from the kitchen before dinner.
Anna had whispered to Victoria later beneath their blanket, Nobody should have to apologize for being hungry.
Victoria looked away quickly.
Edward stood near the doorway.
“I still think we should call the police.”
“We will.”
“And child services.”
“After she finishes eating.”
“This is serious.”
“I’m aware.”
Edward lowered his voice.
“You’re letting emotion cloud your judgment.”
Victoria looked up.
“And you seem unusually desperate to get her out of this house.”
His expression shifted.
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Is it?”
Lucy stopped eating.
Victoria softened immediately.
“Lucy, sweetheart, could you stay here with Mrs. Graham for a few minutes?”
The housekeeper, sixty-seven-year-old Margaret Graham, stood nearby with tears already in her eyes.
Margaret had worked at Hale House since Victoria and Anna were children.
The moment she saw Lucy, she had dropped a tray.
Now she approached the child carefully.
“Would you like some chocolate cake?”
Lucy looked at Victoria.
Victoria nodded.
“You can trust her.”
Lucy followed Margaret toward the pantry.
Edward waited until they disappeared.
Then he turned.
“What exactly are you accusing me of?”
“Nothing.”
“You looked at me like—”
“Why did you react when she mentioned the blue wall?”
“I didn’t.”
“You did.”
Edward laughed once, without humor.
“Victoria, we were children when Anna disappeared. You’re constructing conspiracies because a little girl walked into your party with an old piece of jewelry.”
“A piece of jewelry Anna was wearing the night she disappeared.”
“That proves nothing.”
“It proves Lucy had contact with her.”
“Or someone who knew her.”
Victoria stared at him.
“Like you?”
Edward’s face hardened.
“Be careful.”
The warning was subtle.
But it was there.
Victoria felt something cold move through her.
The blue wall had once belonged to a narrow attic corridor in the oldest wing of Hale House.
When Victoria was eleven and Anna twelve, they discovered that one section sounded hollow when knocked.
They spent an entire summer trying to pry loose the decorative paneling.
Behind it was a narrow storage room their grandfather had used to keep old documents.
Their father caught them inside.
He was furious.