Chapter 5 - The Man Beside the Christmas Tree
Jonathan ran.
He hit the front doors so hard they slammed against the walls.
“MASON!”
Police rushed behind him.
The east hallway was empty.
Sophie stood beside the enormous Christmas tree crying.
Mason held her.
“Where is he?”
Sophie pointed toward the servants’ stairs.
“Grandpa.”
Detective Cole sent officers in both directions.
Jonathan crouched beside his daughter.
“Did he touch you?”
“No.”
“What did he say?”
Sophie wiped her face.
“‘You got big.’”
Mason’s eyes were furious.
“I heard footsteps. When I came out, he ran.”
Police searched every room.
Nobody found Charles Reed.
But the service door beside the old pantry stood open.
Snow blew across the floor.
Outside, footprints crossed the garden and disappeared near the greenhouse.
Victor Hale remained under guard in the foyer.
Jonathan grabbed his coat.
“You knew he was alive.”
Victor did not resist.
“I suspected.”
“You brought him here?”
“No.”
“You brought his ring.”
“Because Vanessa gave it to me.”
Jonathan released him.
“What?”
Victor glanced at Detective Cole.
“My sister called me six months after your father supposedly died. She was terrified. She said Charles had approached her and offered money.”
“For what?”
“To become indispensable to your family.”
Jonathan’s stomach turned.
Victor continued.
“She was supposed to get close to Emily. Then close to you.”
Mason whispered, “She married Dad.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Victor looked at Jonathan.
“Because Charles wanted control of Hawthorne House.”
Jonathan laughed once in disbelief.
“He already owned it.”
“No. He didn’t.”
Detective Cole opened the estate file.
Victor pointed to a trust provision.
“Hawthorne House passed directly to Jonathan’s children after Charles’s legal death.”
Jonathan read the clause.
Mason and Sophie owned the mansion.
Not him.
Vanessa had married the father of two children who controlled an estate worth nearly nine million dollars.
“Why would my father care?” Jonathan asked.
Victor’s answer was quiet.
“Because there is something under this property worth more than the house.”
That night the police found the greenhouse footprints ended at an old drainage hatch.
Below it was a tunnel.
Mason stared into the opening.
“The wall passages connect outside.”
Cole nodded.
“Which means someone could enter the mansion without using a door.”
Jonathan looked at every Christmas decoration with new suspicion.
For years, Hawthorne House had hosted charity dinners, family reunions, school fundraisers.
People had walked above hidden corridors without knowing.
Mara brought Sophie hot chocolate.
“Extra marshmallows?”
Sophie nodded.
Mara looked at Mason.
“You too.”
“I’m okay.”
“That was not a question.”
For the first time in days, Mason smiled.
It lasted three seconds.
Then a police officer entered carrying a metal box found inside the tunnel.
The box contained property surveys, photographs, and a handwritten ledger.
Several pages listed dates.
Emily’s disappearance.
Charles’s crash.
Vanessa’s marriage to Jonathan.
Payments to Raymond Bell.
And one line written beside December 24:
OPEN THE NORTH FOUNDATION.
Jonathan looked up.
“What is under the north foundation?”
Mara dropped the mug.
It shattered across the kitchen floor.
Everyone stared at her.
Mara went pale.
“You know,” Jonathan said.
She closed her eyes.
“Your mother made me promise never to tell you.”
“My mother died when I was seventeen.”
“Yes.”
“What did she know?”
Mara looked toward the children.
“Not in front of them.”
Mason stood.
“No.”
Jonathan started to speak.
Mason shook his head.
“Every adult keeps saying that. Then we’re the ones who get hurt because we don’t know anything.”
The room went silent.
Mara nodded slowly.
“Fair enough.”
She sat down.
“Your grandmother’s family owned this land before the Reeds. During Prohibition, there were tunnels. Later your grandfather used one chamber as a private records vault.”
“For money?”
“For secrets.”
“What kind?”
Mara’s eyes moved to Jonathan.
“The kind powerful men paid to keep buried.”
Jonathan felt sick.
Charles had spent decades advising politicians, developers, judges, and wealthy families.
A secret archive could destroy hundreds of lives.
Mason whispered, “Mom found it.”
Mara nodded.
“That is what I believe.”
“And Grandpa took her?”
“I don’t know.”
A sound came from the wall.
Not knocking.
Scratching.
Then a woman’s voice, faint and terrified:
“Mason?”
Sophie dropped her mug.
“Mommy!”
Mason ran toward the wallpaper.
Jonathan caught him before he reached it.
The voice came again.
“Don’t open the north foundation.”
May you like
Then a man shouted somewhere inside the wall.
The voice stopped.
