C.J. Miller - Capturing A Colton

Guilt plucked at Jade. She’d had nothing to do with Cody’s disappearance, and she had been devastated that he had been taken and it was hard to distance herself from her mother. People lumped the Coltons together—as if, by being related to Livia, they were all tainted. Jade wished she could have done something to Livia, said something to her, to change the course of their family history. Maybe help her to see that riches weren’t the only end goal. Life had many other joyous prospects that were worth pursuing.

Allison’s phone buzzed and she glanced at it. “We’re working on taking down the pool and filling it in. But the authorities have asked us to be careful.”

“Because of the electrical lines?” Jade asked.

Allison paled slightly. “Because there could be bodies. Drugs. Anything out there.” She answered her phone and stepped into the hall. Her voice grew more distant.

“I can show you a couple of the places where my mother used to hide things,” Jade said.

Declan gestured ahead of him. “Lead the way.”

With every step, Jade reassured herself she was strong now. She was not a child anymore. It was daylight and she was surrounded by dozens of people. Her mother wouldn’t come at her in this space. She entered Leonor’s bathroom. Leonor had been her mother’s favorite. They were closer than Jade had been to her mother, and that was something Jade had never understood. She chalked it up to Leonor’s inheritance from her biological father, CEO Richard Hartman, and Livia’s love of money.

Many of the fixtures had been removed. She knelt in front of the cabinet beneath the white marble sink, dusty with age. Reaching behind the plumbing, she pulled a wood knob to the side. A door behind the cabinet swung open.

She couldn’t get inside now, but as a child she and Claudia had discovered it. Peering inside, it looked empty. Dust and dirt and cobwebs.

“What is that?” Declan asked.

“A secret area of the house. I only found something once. My mother had placed nesting dolls inside. I thought they were cool and maybe she was hiding them for my birthday. When I didn’t get one, I asked her about them. She pretended not to know what I was talking about. I checked that night and they were gone. I didn’t know when she’d moved them or what they actually were, but I suspect she was smuggling something inside them.”

Jade left the secret door open. She went into Thorne’s room. Thorne hadn’t cared about his bedroom. He had spent as much time as Livia would allow with Mac. Given that the Coltons had been raised by nannies and Livia rarely made an appearance outside public functions, that had meant that Thorne could be with his father often.

Jade knelt on the floor and ran her hand over the wood boards. When she found the small notch, she lifted up. Once the first board came free, she could lift the flap built into the floor. It was heavy with the floorboard on top of it.

A ladder led down into a secret room on the main floor that could only be accessed from Thorne’s room. That then led to another room, which led beneath the house.

The electricity might not be working down there. The darkness that awaited her at the bottom of the metal rung ladder scared her. This tunnel led out to Fabrizio’s barn, meaning people and items could be moved between the two buildings without the knowledge of anyone watching.

Could Livia be waiting in those secret, underground tunnels? She had been chased off and it would be ridiculous for Livia to still be lurking around La Bonne Vie. The authorities were looking for her. While the manhunt for Livia Colton immediately following her prison escape from Red Peak Maximum Security Prison in Gatesville, Texas, had been intense, she was a dangerous woman with connections and contingency plans and the smarts to stay one step ahead of the authorities. Thousands of volunteers had combed the woods and hidden areas for Livia and had come up empty.

“Do you want me to check it out?” Declan asked, pointing to the ladder.

Jade shook her head. “It leads to the barn. Part of the tunnel could have collapsed. It could be unstable or dangerous, especially with the construction outside.”

“I’ll get a hard hat and a flashlight and check it out,” Declan said.

Jade didn’t like the idea, but it was his property. She couldn’t stop him. After grabbing the equipment, he handed her an orange hard hat. He put one on too and went down the ladder. She joined him on the main floor. The walls were drywall. Jade gave a small kick. If she could puncture it, it would be like unveiling another of Livia’s secrets, which felt like she was getting back at her mother.

Declan set his hand on her shoulder. “Allow me.” He lifted his knee and kicked through the wall.

Once the drywall had been pierced, it was easy to remove the rest, leaving the wood two-by-fours. They were standing in the secret area in the formal dining room. The dining room was empty; curtains and light fixtures had been removed. Jade had recalled the room being flooded with light during one of Livia’s soirees. Now it seemed dim and ugly, the gold floor tile brown with age and grime. The wallpaper was peeling off the walls, hanging in limp sections.

“This room looks terrible,” Jade said.

“We haven’t done any demo here,” Declan said.

“It feels empty and cold.” She didn’t want to explore that emotion too deeply. “Let’s keep going.”

Another ladder led deeper.

Declan shined the flashlight down. “I don’t see anything. It smells like wet earth.”

Jade was curious. She checked her hard hat. If she was going to do this, if she wanted to purge her bad memories and overcome her fears, she had to face them head-on. She knelt on the floor and started down the ladder. Her legs quaked and her hands felt weak. When she reached the bottom, she looked around.

Declan jumped off the ladder and landed next to her. “We can do this together.” He extended his hand to her.

Jade took his hand and was happy he was beside her. Moving aside a large plywood sheet that was sunk in the mud was a two-person job and then a tunnel was revealed. It was constructed like a mine shaft, wood beams holding out the walls with rocks along the floor. The walls were packed mud and she tried not to think about them caving in.

Jade let out the breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. Her mother wasn’t in the small space. Her mother wouldn’t be waiting in the dark on the off chance Jade visited La Bonne Vie and decided to spill a family secret.

Jade envisioned her mother as two people: the graceful and wonderful woman she pretended to be when someone was watching, and the person she morphed into when she was upset. Though Livia could maintain a cold facade regardless of the circumstances, even a husband’s death, when it came to her children, she was often more cruel than indifferent.

The tunnel was dark. Declan flipped on his flashlight. “If you want to turn back, let me know. Parts of the tunnel might be caved in. We can see how far we get.” Declan had to bend his knees to enter the space.

Jade walked behind him, keeping her hand on his back. The strength in his body was a reassurance. The confidence in his steps kept her going. Only the flashlight illuminated the small space. Her boots stuck in the mud and Jade shivered in the cold, damp air.

“I remember it being light down here,” Jade said. They turned a corner and lost the little light from the entry. Though the walls were two feet apart, claustrophobia began to creep at her. The tunnel could collapse and they could be stuck under the ground. Each step felt like effort.

When they reached another plywood board, Declan pushed it to the side. They were inside another room. This one was lined with wood on the floor and sides, creating a box, like an unmoving elevator. Declan scaled the ladder and pushed at the top. “I can’t open it.”