Chapter 2 - THE MAID WHO HEARD THE KNOCKING
Olivia had worked at Hale House for eleven months. She had joined the staff after her father died and her younger brother, Ben, needed surgery their insurance would not cover. The salary was good, the hours were long, and the house had enough rooms that a maid could work an entire day without seeing the owner.
Richard rarely noticed the staff. He was not cruel, but grief had made him distant. Since Emily's disappearance, he moved through the mansion like a man following instructions written by someone else.
Vanessa had noticed Olivia immediately.
She liked to know who entered each room, which drawers were opened, and which employees spoke to Richard without being summoned. She had replaced the house manager, changed the security schedule, and ordered Emily's photographs removed from the main hall.
“It's unhealthy to live among ghosts,” Vanessa had said.
Olivia had kept one photograph in the linen cupboard: Emily standing in the garden with a little girl from the children's hospital charity. Emily had been smiling, her dark hair loose in the wind. The picture reminded Olivia of her own mother.
The first strange sound came three days before the wedding.
Olivia was checking a faulty wall light in the ballroom when she heard a faint tap behind the flower wall. She assumed a decorator had left a tool inside the structure. Then she heard it again.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
She put her ear against the panel.
“Hello?”
A whisper answered. “Please.”
Olivia stepped back so quickly that she struck the ladder.
She went straight to Daniel. He was in the security office, reviewing camera footage.
“There's someone behind the ballroom wall.”
Daniel looked up. “What?”
“I heard a voice. A woman.”
He checked the floor plan. “That wall is decorative. There's a service cavity behind the old panel, but it's too narrow to stand in.”
“Someone is in there.”
Daniel sent two guards to inspect it. They tapped the wall, checked the edges, and found no visible opening. One told Olivia she was exhausted.
She was not satisfied.
That evening, she returned with a flashlight and examined the baseboard. A small scratch marked the wood near the corner. There were fresh scuffs beneath the flowers, as though someone had dragged a heavy object across the floor.
The next morning, Vanessa found her kneeling there.
“What are you doing?”
“Cleaning the trim, ma'am.”
“You've been told not to touch the wedding decorations.”
“I heard something.”
Vanessa's eyes narrowed. “You heard nothing.”
Olivia looked up. “Someone is behind the wall.”
Vanessa grabbed her wrist. Her nails pressed into Olivia's skin.
“If you repeat that, you'll be dismissed. And I'll make certain no respectable household in this city hires you.”
Olivia had seen fear before. She had seen it in her father's face when the doctor explained the cost of treatment. She had seen it in Ben's eyes when he asked whether he would lose his place at school.
But Vanessa's fear was different. It was the fear of someone whose secret had begun to move.
Olivia waited until the house grew quiet. She found an old renovation plan in the maintenance office. The ballroom wall had once contained a narrow access space used for electrical cables and ventilation. During the recent wedding renovations, a contractor had installed a new timber partition over it.
The work order carried Vanessa's approval.
Olivia took a photograph of the plan and sent it to her personal email. Then she heard footsteps behind her.
Vanessa stood in the doorway.
“Give me that.”
Olivia folded the plan. “It's a maintenance document.”
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
Vanessa slapped her. The sound cracked through the empty office.
“You don't understand what you're interfering with.”
Olivia's cheek burned. She did not answer.
Vanessa took the plan and tore it in half. “Finish your shift. Tomorrow you will work the wedding, and you will keep your eyes down.”
Olivia went home that night with a red mark on her face. Ben noticed it during their video call.
“Did someone hurt you?”
“I walked into a cupboard.”
“You're a terrible liar.”
She smiled because he needed her to. “I'm fine.”
But she did not sleep.
The next morning, the ballroom was full of florists, photographers, and catering staff. Olivia returned to the wall with a small screwdriver hidden in her apron. Behind a loose panel, she found a narrow metal latch.
Before she could turn it, a voice came from inside.
“Please don't leave me.”
Olivia pressed her hand over her mouth.
“Who are you?”
A pause.
Then: “Emily.”
Olivia knew the name. Everyone in the house knew the name.
Richard Hale's missing wife.
Olivia stepped away from the panel. Her hands shook so hard she dropped the screwdriver.
A shadow moved at the far end of the corridor.
May you like
Vanessa.
Olivia ran.
