Castle | ✔️

Chapter Twenty Two

They planned to kill Castle.

Have I heard them correctly? But why would they want their brother dead?

I was missing something here.

I stayed hidden inside the closet while Dayana checked the room. I could see her shiny green pumps from a small opening. She moved around in the room. I could hear the shuffling. I didn't move an inch. My breathing had turned heavy. I pressed my hand to my mouth.

I was married into this family, and even if I'd felt forced to at first, I'd accepted my fate because of Castle, because I loved him, but I didn't have an intention of living my entire life hiding from this family that was supposed to be my family now.

Yeah, I was part of this screwed up family. It was the bitter truth.

Devin followed Dayana into the room and they spoke in hushed voices, looking around in the darkened room.

Just then, my back hit the wooden wall and something behind me moved.

Meeeoowww

The fat Himalayan cat Lulu jumped from a top shelf and went to brush herself against Dayana's legs.

"Aw, so it was you who was making those sounds." Dayana picked the fluffy cat up into her arms. "Are you hungry, baby?" she cooed.

Thankfully, they decided the cat was making the ruckus and left the room, closing the door behind them. I stayed put for a few minutes in case they were still there, listening against the door. I didn't want to get into trouble.

If Devin and Dayana wanted to plot Castle's murder, why would they be so careless and leave the door open? There were a lot of servants in the house who would eavesdrop, and word would certainly get out.

Unless...

They were trying to bait me with it.

I pushed the inner closet paneling a little and noticed a small gap between them. I pushed it harder and the entire thing just fell apart. There was a tunnel ahead of me, much similar to the one that I'd been to before.

This mansion had a lot of secret tunnels and passageways, so it shouldn't have come as a surprise to me, but something about this darkened passage made little sense.

The entry to it was installed through the old closet, which had honestly looked out of place in the vast room. There was old furniture littering around the room, some vintage chairs, tables carved out of expensive wood, and a four-poster bed fit for a king. The room was well maintained as it was being dusted and cleaned by a house staff so if a person stumbled upon this room, they wouldn't guess the inner paneling of the closet led somewhere. It was meant to look like any other old furniture. The secret rooms or passages hid in plain sight.

I stepped from the closet and onto the narrow dingy passage that was pitch black. With shaky hands, I pulled out my phone and used its flashlight to navigate my way through it.

An unsettling feeling crept into my skin. I knew I was making the same huge mistake I'd done before by walking right into dangerous territory. If I was any smarter, I should have turned and walked back like I hadn't noticed this, but I couldn't. Maybe it was the curiosity burning like a flame inside me. I wanted to play Sherlock Holmes. Or maybe it was the thrill to dig deeper into the family's dirty secrets.

The passage turned narrower and narrower, dirt matted the floor. The walls once had some nice wallpaper that was now yellow and peeling. You wouldn't even guess this place was inside the mansion. It was so dank and dirty.

At the end of the way, there was a steep set of stairs. I almost lost my footing. I wondered if one of the Mad Montgomery ancestors who had this built wanted unsuspecting people to run down this passage and fall down these stairs, possibly breaking their necks and end up dead.