Chapter 1 - The Question at the Cake
Ava Mercer’s sixth birthday was supposed to be perfect.
Brianna had made sure of it.
The dining room of their old Georgian house glowed beneath crystal chandeliers. Pale pink balloons floated above white linen tables. A three-tier cake stood beneath a gold banner that read HAPPY SIXTH BIRTHDAY, AVA. Children from Ava’s school chased one another between chairs while their parents drank champagne near the French doors.
From the outside, the Mercer family looked exactly the way Brianna liked them to look.
Successful.
Stable.
Happy.
Logan Mercer stood beside the cake in a navy jacket, laughing as Ava tried to steal frosting with one finger.
“Not yet,” he said.
Ava grinned.
Brianna stepped closer and adjusted the ribbon in her daughter’s hair.
“Pictures first.”
Ava looked toward the staircase.
Her smile faded slightly.
Then she looked back at Brianna.
“Mommy?”
“Yes, sweetheart?”
“Why didn’t you invite my sister down for cake?”
For one strange second, the surrounding noise seemed to disappear.
Logan turned.
“What?”
Ava pointed toward Brianna.
“My sister.”
Logan crouched beside his daughter.
“You don’t have a sister.”
Brianna’s smile remained on her face for half a heartbeat too long.
Then it vanished.
“Ava,” she said sharply. “Don’t make things up.”
Ava blinked.
Several nearby adults turned toward them.
Logan straightened.
“Brianna.”
“It’s her birthday,” Brianna said quickly. “She’s excited.”
But Ava frowned.
“I’m not making it up.”
Brianna gripped the edge of the table.
“Enough.”
Ava looked at Logan.
“Then who’s the girl in the attic?”
Logan stopped breathing.
He slowly turned toward his wife.
Brianna had gone pale.
Not embarrassed.
Not confused.
Afraid.
Logan knew his wife well enough to recognize the difference.
“What girl?” he asked Ava.
Ava lifted one small hand and pointed toward the staircase.
“The girl behind that wall.”
Nobody moved.
Across the room, children continued laughing.
A balloon burst somewhere near the kitchen.
Brianna flinched so violently that Logan noticed.
“Which wall?” he asked.
Brianna stepped between them.
“That’s enough.”
“Brianna.”
“She has an imagination.”
Ava looked hurt.
“She talks to me.”
Logan stared at his daughter.
“What does she say?”
Brianna grabbed his arm.
“Not here.”
That frightened him more than anything else.
Because Brianna had not said there was no girl.
She had said not here.
Logan looked toward the staircase.
Their house had been built in 1912. The attic occupied almost the entire third floor, though one section had been sealed during renovations years earlier.
Brianna had always told him it contained old pipes and damaged plaster.
Ava tugged his sleeve.
“She said I shouldn’t tell Mommy I found her.”
Brianna closed her eyes.
Logan stared at her.
“What did you just say?”
Ava repeated it.
“The girl said Mommy gets scared when people ask about her.”
Brianna opened her eyes.
There were tears in them now.
“Logan,” she whispered.
He had never heard his wife say his name that way.
“Who is upstairs?”
“No one.”
“You’re lying.”
Around them, guests were beginning to sense that something was wrong.
Brianna forced a smile.
“Cake first.”
Logan looked at her as though she were a stranger.
“You want to cut cake?”
“Please.”
“While our six-year-old is telling me there’s somebody living behind a wall in our attic?”
“She isn’t living there.”
The words escaped Brianna before she could stop them.
Logan froze.
So did Brianna.
Ava looked between her parents.
Logan lowered his voice.
“You just said she isn’t living there.”
Brianna swallowed.
“I misspoke.”
“No. You knew exactly what I meant.”
A parent approached cautiously.
“Everything okay?”
Brianna immediately smiled.
“Of course.”
Logan understood then that he would get nothing from her while the room was full.
So he did something that frightened Brianna even more.
He smiled too.
“Everything’s fine.”
For the next forty minutes they played the role of a happy family.
Ava blew out six candles.
People sang.
Pictures were taken.
Children ate cake.
But Logan watched Brianna.
She checked the staircase nine times.
And once, when she thought nobody was watching, she slipped her phone from her purse and typed a message.
Logan could not see the entire screen.
He saw only four words before she turned away.
He knows about her.
By seven thirty, the last guest had gone.
The front door closed.
Silence filled the house.
Ava sat on the sofa holding a new stuffed rabbit.
Logan locked the door.
Then he turned toward Brianna.
“Take me upstairs.”
Brianna stood motionless.
“Logan—”
“Now.”
Ava looked worried.
“Daddy?”
Logan softened instantly.
“You didn’t do anything wrong, sweetheart.”
Brianna covered her mouth.
That was when a faint sound came from somewhere above them.
Not a voice.
Not a knock.
Something falling.
All three looked toward the ceiling.
Logan started for the staircase.
Brianna grabbed him.
“No.”
He looked down at her hand.
“Why?”
May you like
Her fingers trembled.
“Because,” she whispered, “once you see what’s behind that wall, nothing in this family will ever be the same again.”
