Chapter 1
They Were Hiding Inside The Walls Of The House We Slept In Every Night—Then The Little Girl Looked At Me And Called Me “Daddy.”
It started with missing food.
Bread.
Fruit.
Small bottles of water.
Then I discovered four-year-old Lily carrying everything into her bedroom.
“Who are you feeding?”
She looked toward the wall.
That was when I heard another child breathing behind it.
I opened the vent.
A frightened little girl was hiding inside.
Then Caroline walked into the room.
My wife’s reaction chilled me.
She already knew.
“Ryan, don’t ask her anything.”
Before I could demand an explanation, the child crawled toward me.
“Daddy.”
One word changed the entire house.
Caroline immediately claimed she was confused.
But the little girl knew my name.
She knew details about my childhood.
And she had a photograph of me that I had never seen before.
Then Lily whispered:
“Mommy brings someone here at night.”
Caroline went pale.
“Lily, stop.”
But my daughter pointed toward the passage.
“There’s another room.”
I crawled farther inside.
Beyond the blankets was a second concealed door.
Locked from the other side.
Then someone behind it knocked three times.
And Caroline whispered the sentence that made me stop breathing:
May you like
“They weren’t supposed to still be here.”
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