13. Mysterious door

Mia Miller

The silence in Ethan's mansion was heavy, almost suffocating.

With him gone, the house felt like a labyrinth of secrets, and my desire to uncover what was really happening only grew stronger. As I walked through the hallways, my curiosity drove me to explore every corner, every door, hoping to find something that would reveal more about the mysterious man who now controlled every little part of my life.

I looked around carefully, and there was no one here.

How could he live in such silence? Didn’t he have any parents? Relatives?

Then, as I turned around, I bumped into something.

"Dammit," I muttered as my arm collided with a door.

It was a door at the end of a dark hallway, different from the others. The metal handle was worn, as if it had been used frequently, contrasting with the rest of the immaculate mansion.

Something about that door called to me. Without thinking, my hand instinctively went to the handle. I tried to turn the knob, and to my surprise, the door gave way, creaking as it opened.

What I found on the other side was… inexplicable.

The room was shrouded in a dim light that was only broken by a faint glow coming from a small window covered by heavy curtains. On the walls, there were symbols I had never seen before, but somehow, they felt strangely familiar.

They were drawn with precision, as if they were part of a ritual or an ancient code. In the center of the room, there was a table covered with strange objects—glowing crystals, vials with liquids of bizarre colors, and what looked like an old book, its pages yellowed and worn.

My heart raced as I looked around, trying to comprehend what I was seeing. Everything in there exuded a supernatural aura, an energy I couldn’t explain. My fingers trembled as I touched one of the vials, and at that moment, something inside me recognized the symbol on the wall. Where had I seen that before?

Before I could process it and reach for the book to see what was written, I felt a presence behind me. Ethan.

“You shouldn’t be here, Mia,” his voice was cold, cutting. He was at the door, his blue eyes glowing with an intensity I had never seen before.

It was as if his entire facade had crumbled, revealing something far more dangerous and frightening underneath.

“Who are you, really?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady, even though my heart was pounding uncontrollably.

Ethan didn’t respond immediately. He took a step forward, enough to make me step back. “Get out of here, Mia. Now.”

There was an urgency in his voice that I had never heard before, but also something else—fear? He was hiding something, something big, and the way he looked at me now, as if I were an intruder in his world, only confirmed my suspicions.

“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what’s going on,” I insisted, but Ethan was already gently pushing me out of the room.

He closed the door behind us, locking it with a key that seemed to appear out of nowhere. “This is none of your business,” he said, his voice softer but still firm. “Forget what you saw. Please, I don’t want to take drastic measures against you.”

“You’re the father of my child. I need to know who he’s dealing with.”

He seemed to analyze me from head to toe, slowly, and I tried to maintain control.

“In the contract you signed… it says you’ll do whatever I want. If you want your son back, I ask you to keep quiet!”

I could see the internal battle in his eyes, as if he were torn between protecting me and pushing me away. And, for a moment, I was tempted to back down, to let it go. But something inside me knew that this was the key to understanding everything—Lorenzo’s kidnapping, Ethan’s true nature, and even the questions I didn’t even know I had about myself.

But, for now, Ethan wouldn’t give me anything more. He guided me back through the hallways of the mansion, the silence between us now even heavier, full of unspoken things and mysteries I was determined to unravel.

I knew I was only scratching the surface. And somehow, I felt that whatever was hidden in that room was just the beginning.

After that terrible situation, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Ethan locked himself in his office and didn’t show up again.