CHAPTER 2:THE LOCKED DOOR
597 Words
Maggie woke before dawn.
The servants’ quarters were silent except for the distant hum of the mansion’s generators. She quickly tied her hair into a neat bun, put on her black-and-white maid uniform, and hurried upstairs.
Blackwood Mansion was already awake.
Crystal chandeliers glowed softly. The marble floors reflected the golden morning light, and every corner of the estate whispered wealth. Maggie had never imagined a place this grand could exist.
“Late by two minutes,” a cold voice said.
Maggie turned sharply. Mrs. Dalton, the head housekeeper, stood behind her with her arms crossed.
“I’m sorry, ma’am.”
“Sorry doesn’t polish silver.”
The woman handed her a cleaning cart.
“Today you’ll clean the west wing. Do not enter the master’s study. No one enters that room.”
Maggie nodded.
“Yes, ma’am.”
As she pushed the cart down the endless corridor, she noticed something strange.
Every door in the west wing was open except one.
A massive dark wooden door stood at the end of the hallway, guarded by a bronze lion sculpture. Unlike the others, it had an old-fashioned keyhole.
The master’s study.
She looked away immediately.
But something about that door made her uneasy.
Hours passed.
She dusted expensive paintings, polished antique furniture, and cleaned rooms larger than the house she had grown up in.
Around noon, she carried fresh linens toward the staircase when voices echoed from the library.
“…the will must never be discovered.”
Maggie froze.
She recognised one voice.
Mrs. Dalton.
The other belonged to a man she had not met.
“If Adrian learns the truth,” the man said quietly, “everything changes.”
Adrian.
The billionaire owner of Blackwood Mansion.
Maggie stepped closer without thinking.
“The girl cannot know,” Mrs. Dalton whispered.
“Which girl?”
“The new maid.”
Maggie’s heart stopped.
She accidentally bumped the linen cart.
A vase wobbled.
Crash!
Shards of crystal exploded across the floor.
The library door flew open.
Mrs. Dalton stared at Maggie with narrowed eyes.
“What are you doing here?”
“I—I was bringing clean sheets.”
“For whom?”
“The guest rooms.”
Silence.
Mrs. Dalton walked toward her slowly.
For a terrifying second, Maggie thought she had been caught.
Then Mrs. Dalton smiled.
It was the kind of smile that never reached the eyes.
“Be careful where you wander, Maggie.”
She walked away.
The mysterious man remained in the shadows.
Maggie could not see his face.
But she felt his eyes following her.
That evening, exhausted, she returned to the servants’ quarters.
As she unlocked her small room, she noticed something slipped under the door.
An envelope.
No name.
No stamp.
With trembling hands, she opened it.
Inside was a single photograph.
A young woman stood beside an elegant older man in front of Blackwood Mansion.
The woman looked exactly like Maggie’s late mother.
Written on the back were five words.
You were never abandoned, Maggie.
Her hands began to shake.
Someone knew who she was.
And someone inside Blackwood Mansion had been waiting for her.
Far above, in the master’s study behind the locked door, a tall man watched the security footage.
Adrian Blackwood leaned forward as Maggie stared at the photograph.
His jaw tightened.
“So she has the picture,” he murmured.
“She’s here.”
He closed his eyes briefly.
“She has no idea she is the true heir.”
Outside, thunder rolled across the night sky.
The secret had finally begun to awaken.
- Writer
