Chapter 1 - The Shadow In The Dark
I barely finished reading the desperate message carved into the wall before I heard it.
Someone was breathing heavily in the pitch-black darkness directly behind me.
I spun around instantly on my heels.
My hand reached instinctively for the loaded weapon concealed under my leather jacket.
Before I could draw my gun, the heavy steel door of the prison cell slammed shut.
The undeniable sound of a heavy deadbolt locking echoed loudly through the damp underground room.
I realized too late that I had walked completely blind into a meticulously planned trap.
I rushed back to the impenetrable door.
I grabbed the thick iron bars covering the small viewing window and pulled with all my brutal strength.
The cold metal did not budge a single millimeter.
A harsh fluorescent light suddenly flickered on from the cracked concrete ceiling.
It mercilessly illuminated the horrifying reality of the hidden underground cell.
In the darkest corner of the room, curled up on a filthy mattress, was a fragile figure.
It was definitely not my beautiful pregnant wife.
It was Maria.
She was the young, innocent maid who had always been fiercely loyal to Grace.
Her face was severely bruised and swollen beyond recognition.
Her white uniform was violently torn and stained with dark dried blood.
She looked up at me with absolute, unadulterated terror shining in her dark eyes.
I knelt carefully beside her and gently asked where my wife was.
Maria trembled violently as she desperately tried to speak through her immense pain.
She whispered painfully that my mother had moved Grace just two hours before my private jet landed.
My mother had known exactly when I was coming back from Europe.
She had orchestrated this entire elaborate scenario solely to lure me down into this forgotten dungeon.
A sudden, sharp hissing noise loudly filled the small, claustrophobic space.
Thick white gas began pouring rapidly through the rusty ventilation shafts directly above us.
The harsh chemical smell burned my lungs immediately upon taking a single breath.
I coughed violently and pulled my shirt up tightly over my nose and mouth.
I threw my entire body weight against the heavy steel door in a desperate attempt to break the hinges.
My vision was already starting to blur dangerously around the edges.
My legs felt completely numb and entirely useless.
I fell heavily to my knees as the cold concrete floor spun wildly out of control.
A hidden speaker crackled to life somewhere in the deep shadows of the ceiling.
My mother's voice drifted down into the cell with a chilling, artificial sweetness.
She calmly told me to sleep well.
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She promised that by the time I finally woke up, my unwanted wife would be entirely erased from our family history.
My eyes rolled back into my head as the toxic gas completely filled my burning lungs.
