## **Chapter 19: The Secret Room**
461 Words
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The next morning, Anjali and Aaryan didn’t speak much. Both were haunted by what they saw on the security footage. The blurry shadow. The cold presence. The feeling that something—or someone—was walking among them unseen.
Aarush, however, seemed unaffected. He hummed softly while eating his breakfast cereal, completely unaware of the fear his parents were swallowing like bitter medicine.
“Anjali,” Aaryan said finally, “there’s something I haven’t told you.”
She looked up sharply. “What?”
He took a deep breath. “There’s a room in this mansion. It was Rhea’s private space. I… I locked it after she died. No one has entered it since.”
Anjali’s pulse quickened. “Why are you telling me this now?”
“Because,” he said, his voice low and heavy, “I think someone has broken into it.”
Without another word, he stood, motioning for her to follow. Past the main staircase and the glass corridor, behind a thick velvet curtain, was a narrow wooden door. It was dust-covered, and the air around it felt colder.
Aaryan unlocked it with a small silver key from his chain.
As the door creaked open, a wave of perfume and stale air hit them.
The room was untouched.
A writing desk sat near the window, photos of Rhea and Aarush as a baby still in frames. A half-finished painting rested on an easel — a woman with blurred eyes. Several journals were stacked neatly.
“Everything looks… peaceful,” Anjali said.
But Aaryan didn’t answer. He had walked to the bookshelf, fingers trailing across the spines. He stopped at a red hardcover.
“This one wasn’t here before,” he muttered.
He pulled it out—and behind it, a small lever.
Click.
A part of the wall opened like a hidden panel.
Anjali gasped. “A secret compartment?”
They stepped inside.
It was a **hidden room**, barely lit, filled with papers, documents, even medical reports.
Aaryan picked one up—and went pale.
“What is it?” she whispered.
He handed it to her.
It was a **psychiatric evaluation** of Rhea.
> *“Patient shows signs of extreme paranoia and personality split. Recommending treatment in an isolated care facility. Danger to self and child.”*
Anjali’s knees weakened. “You never told me she was… sick.”
“I didn’t know,” Aaryan whispered. “Her father must have hidden this. He hated psychiatrists. He always claimed she was fine.”
Suddenly, the motion detector app buzzed again.
Movement in Aarush’s room.
They froze.
Anjali’s voice broke. “He’s not safe.”
Aaryan’s face hardened. “It’s time we find out who’s doing this… before it’s too late.”
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- Writer
