Chapter 2: The Prison Beneath the Water
Marcus didn't remember deciding to let go of the hatch.
He only remembered seeing Elena's face and feeling the world collapse around him.
He pulled himself into the opening.
His shoulders scraped against the metal frame. His shoes struck something hard beneath him. The passage narrowed, and for one terrifying moment, he became wedged between the hatch and the structure below it.
Then the darkness opened.
He found himself inside a submerged chamber.
The water reached almost to the ceiling, but a pocket of air remained trapped above it. His head broke the surface, and he dragged in a breath so violently that his chest burned.
“ELENA!””
His voice bounced off concrete walls.
A weak light flickered in one corner.
The chamber looked like an old mechanical room, built decades earlier and forgotten beneath the mansion. Rusty pipes crossed the ceiling. A metal ladder climbed toward the underside of the pool. Two yellow emergency lights glowed beside a narrow platform.
And Elena was there.
She was leaning against the far wall, her wrists secured with metal cuffs attached to a thick pipe. A strip of fabric hung loosely around her neck. Her wet clothes clung to her thin frame.
Her eyes widened when she recognized him.
“Marcus?””
He swam toward her.
“Oh my God. Oh my God, it's you.””
He grabbed the cuffs.
His hands shook so badly he could barely work the locking mechanism.
“I'm getting you out.””
Elena tried to lift her arms.
“Wait…”
“Don't move. Just hold on.””
“Marcus, listen.””
“Later. We'll talk later.””
“No.”” Her fingers closed around his wrist.
“You have to listen.””
He stopped.
Elena looked toward the metal door behind him.
“She's upstairs.””
Marcus felt his stomach tighten.
“Celeste?””
Elena began crying.
“She's not supposed to know you found me.””
He stared at her.
“What did she do?””
Elena's lips trembled.
“She said you would never come looking again.””
A flash of anger went through him.
“She's going to prison.””
He returned to the cuffs.
The first one had a small combination lock. He tried the metal clasp, then searched the floor for something he could use to break it.
He found a loose wrench beneath a shelf.
“Marcus,” Elena whispered.
“I'm here.””
“She told me you stopped loving me.””
He froze.
“What?””
“She said you were happy without me. That Ava called her Mommy.””
Marcus looked up sharply.
“No. Never.””
Elena's chin quivered.
“She showed me photographs. You and her at dinner. You and her at the beach. Ava sitting in her lap.””
“Those were photographs taken at family events.””
“She said you had chosen her.””
Marcus swallowed.
“Celeste lied.””
He struck the lock with the wrench.
Once.
Twice.
The metal cracked.
The cuff opened.
Elena's arm dropped, and she winced as blood rushed back into her fingers.
Marcus moved to the second cuff.
“I'm sorry,” he whispered.
“I'm so sorry.””
Elena gave him a weak smile.
“You came.””
“Of course I came.””
He broke the second lock, then pulled her gently against him.
For several seconds, neither spoke.
Marcus held his wife in the darkness beneath his own home, surrounded by rusty pipes and stagnant water, and tried to understand how the world had allowed this to happen.
Then Elena began shaking.
“She's going to hurt Ava.””
The words snapped him back into action.
“No, she isn't.””
“She said if I ever got out, she'd take Ava somewhere you could never find her.””
Marcus looked toward the ladder.
“Can you climb?””
Elena tried to stand. Her knees buckled immediately.
He caught her.
“Okay. I've got you.””
“Marcus, the door…”
“What about it?””
“There's another lock outside. Celeste has the key.””
Marcus glanced at the opening.
He had left the hatch partially raised. The metal door was trembling slightly in the water.
“Then we'll find another way.””
He helped Elena onto the ladder.
She could barely grip the rungs. Her fingers were bruised, and her arms were so weak that Marcus had to support most of her weight.
Halfway up, she stopped.
“Marcus?””
“Keep going.””
“Look at my neck.””
He turned toward her.
A thin, dark bruise circled her throat.
His stomach twisted.
“Who did that?””
Elena looked away.
“Celeste.””
Marcus gripped the ladder so tightly his knuckles whitened.
“She did this to you?””
“She wanted me to sign something.””
“What?””
“My confession.””
He stared at her.
“What confession?””
Elena closed her eyes.
“She said I had stolen money from your company. That I'd been planning to take Ava away.””
Marcus felt the air leave his lungs.
It was absurd.
Elena had never wanted his money. She had been the one who encouraged him when he started his company in a rented office with two employees and a borrowed computer.
“Why would she need you to sign a confession?””
“Because she wanted everyone to believe I had run away.””
The pieces were beginning to fit together.
The missing wife.
The false trail.
The recovered car.
The funeral without a body.
But Marcus couldn't think about any of it while Elena was struggling to breathe.
He pushed her upward.
“Just a little farther.””
When they reached the upper passage, the metal hatch was still open.
Marcus boosted Elena through it.
She cried out when her arms touched the pool floor, but he kept pushing until she was clear of the opening.
Then he climbed out himself.
His head broke the surface.
The terrace was chaos.
Guests crowded near the far side of the pool. Several security guards were trying to keep people back. A woman was shouting for towels.
And Ava was standing barefoot on the stone steps.
The moment she saw him, she ran forward.
“Daddy!””
Marcus caught her with one arm.
“Baby, stay back. The water isn't safe.””
Ava looked over his shoulder.
Then she saw the woman beside him.
“Mommy?””
Elena lifted her head.
Her lips parted.
“Ava…”
The little girl made a sound that was half scream, half laugh.
“Mommy!””
She reached for her mother, and Marcus carefully guided her down into the shallow water.
Ava threw both arms around Elena's neck.
“I told Daddy! I told him you were here!””
Elena sobbed into her daughter's hair.
“You found me, sweetheart.””
“I knew you weren't gone.””
Marcus held them both.
For the first time in eleven months, his family was together.
Then he looked toward the terrace.
Celeste was gone.
Her champagne-colored gown lay abandoned beside the fountain. Her handbag was still on the chair. The red velvet ring box remained open where Marcus had dropped it.
But Celeste herself had disappeared.
A security guard rushed over.
“Mr. Vale, should I call an ambulance?””
“Yes. And the police. Tell them we've found my wife.””
The guard stared at Elena.
“Your wife?””
Marcus's voice became hard.
“My wife was held prisoner beneath this pool.””
He looked around at the guests.
“Lock every gate. Nobody leaves.””
Ava clung to Elena as paramedics arrived. Marcus climbed out of the water and helped lift his wife onto a stretcher.
An older woman who had worked in the mansion for years stood nearby, crying.
“Mrs. Vale,” she whispered.
“We thought you were dead.””
Elena managed to look at her.
“I know, Mrs. Collins.””
The housekeeper covered her mouth.
Marcus turned to one of the guards.
“Find Celeste.””
“Yes, sir.””
“Check the guesthouse, the garages, the security office. Every room.””
The guard hurried away.
As paramedics began examining Elena, Marcus crouched beside the stretcher.
“I'm going with you.””
Elena caught his hand.
“Don't.””
He frowned.
“What?””
“Don't leave Ava alone.””
“I'll stay with both of you.””
She looked toward the mansion.
“Marcus, you don't understand. She knows where everything is. She knows your passwords, your schedules, the security codes.””
“I'll change everything.””
Elena shook her head.
“It's not only about the house.””
She reached inside the torn lining of her sleeve and pulled out something small.
A tiny silver key.
Marcus stared at it.
“Where did you get that?””
“I took it from her when she came down last night.””
“What does it open?””
Elena tried to answer, but the paramedic interrupted.
“Sir, we need to transport her now. She's severely dehydrated, and she may have internal injuries.””
Marcus nodded and climbed into the ambulance.
As the doors closed, his phone vibrated.
An unfamiliar number.
He almost ignored it.
Then a message appeared.
*You were never supposed to find the woman under the pool.*
A second message followed.
*Ask Elena what happened the night she disappeared.*
Marcus looked at his wife.
May you like
Her face had gone completely still.
And when he showed her the message, she started screaming.
