“The basement,” someone behind him echoed the answer he had been waiting for over two years to hear.
He turned around as if in a haze. “Take him to the constables,” he ordered the men. Then, he wanted to make the man know something else, something crucial. He walked over the man now known as Nathan Anderson with the same cold blue eyes that stared at him with hatred. “I will make sure you rot in prison for the rest of your life,” Edwin promised Nathan.
Then, he ran all the way back to the house, barely able to control himself.
CHAPTER29
Edwin could almost hear his sister’s silent pleas for help. He did not know where the basement was located in this grand old mansion, but he had a good idea. He found the stairs then went down to the basement. What he found there seemed to be nothing unusual. There was no indication of anyone being kept there against their will.
“I don’t understand…” Edwin placed his hands on his hips then looked around.
A few of his men joined him while the others remained outside with Nathan, waiting for the constables to arrive. Edwin kept searching for something out of the ordinary, something that might indicate the fact that there were people here, people who could not find their way out. But nothing pointed in that direction.
Suddenly, Edwin noticed that part of a wall seemed to be painted differently from the other parts of the wall. Hope flared up inside of him. He walked over there, pressing his open palms to the surface. He could still see or feel nothing out of the ordinary. Then, he noticed a barely visible line that went all the way from the bottom to the middle of the wall. It turned right then plunged downwards again, almost as if there was a door behind it.
He tried to peel the wall off, to scrape what he could, but there was still nothing. Then, he tried pushing it in. He used all of his strength and aimed his shoulder at it. He lunged at the wall, not even thinking that he might get seriously hurt if it was truly a wall and nothing else.But he wasn’t thinking. That was the truth. He was blinded by the fact that Rachel was down here, and he was wasting precious moments by being indecisive. He needed to act fast.
He closed his eyes and used his entire body strength to push the wall which exploded underneath his efforts. The bricks dropped down to the ground around him. Thick haze rose all around him, making him cough, and he cursed. It took his eyes a few moments to adjust.
He lowered his head and walked through the hole, entering a small room. At the end of it, he could see the door. It locked with a chain.
He used the sole of his boot to kick it open angrily, and after a few tries, it gave in. With a trembling hand, he reached for the doorknob and opened the door. It was pitch black inside. He couldn’t hear anything.
Edwin’s heart dropped all the way down to the soles of his feet. He feared that he was too late. All he would find here would be –
“Edwin?”
He heard his name being called out. It was the voice of someone he hadn’t heard from in two years, the voice of someone he feared he would never hear from again.
“Rachel?” he called out her name in return.
He waited for a few moments, unable to go into the pitch-black room. He was afraid of what he might find there. Then, he realized that it was his sister that called out to him. She needed him.
With that realization, he ran into the room, and the moment he felt someone’s body close to his, he wrapped his arms around it, picking it up and taking it back outside with him. But upon getting out, he realized that he didn’t have Rachel in his arms. It was someone else.
“Are you… Geraldine?” he asked, with a trembling voice.
The girl nodded. She didn’t look like a young lady at all, the one he remembered from the photograph that her mother had shown him. This seemed to be a different girl altogether. Her cheeks were hollow and dark. Her eyes were all red and swollen from crying. Her once beautiful gown was soiled and torn at the hems. But she was smiling. Her eyes were wide with shock and gratitude.
“Rachel?” He looked over Geraldine’s shoulder, listening to the sound of oncoming footsteps.
The second person that emerged from the hidden room was a man. Edwin didn’t understand anything.
“I’m… Daniel,” the man spoke, patting himself on the chest. He seemed even more worn out than Geraldine and had a sickly hue. From the story that his cousin had shared, it would seem that Daniel had been kept here for over three years. Edwin almost gasped at the thought of being locked up for such an insane amount of time without even knowing whether one would see the light of day ever again.
“You are all safe,” Edwin felt the need to tell them. “We caught your cousin. He is being handed over to the constables, and I shall see to it that he never sees the light of day as a free man again.”
Daniel and Geraldine didn’t know what to say to this. They exchanged a meaningful glance then looked back at the door. Edwin called out again.
“Rachel?” His voice was pleading. He found everyone. She had to be here. She had to be all right.
He rushed back inside, back where he could not see anything, calling out her name again and again. He stretched out his arms, waving through the darkness, waiting to feel her. But there was nothing but emptiness.
“Edwin?” There was a whisper of hope coming from the corner of the room.
He rushed over there, bending down. He finally felt her. She was sitting. Patting blindly in the darkness, he somehow managed to lift her up into his arms and bring her back out into the light. She felt like a feather, weighing almost nothing. He put her down gently then cupped her face with his hands.
“Let me look at you,” he whispered, unable to believe that she was finally here, standing in front of him.