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the basement door creaked shut upstairs.
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And I heard the lock click.
My heart nearly stopped.
Daniel’s footsteps began descending the basement stairs one at a time.
Unhurried.
Controlled.
By the time he stepped into the light, his expression had completely changed.
Not angry.
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Worse.
Disappointed.
His eyes moved from the unlocked door…
to the journals in my hand…
to the girls standing beside me.
Then he sighed softly.
“I told them never to bring anyone down here.”
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I backed away instinctively.
“Daniel… what is this?”
He looked toward Rebecca’s portrait and smiled faintly.
“This,” he said quietly, “is the only place she still feels real.”
The girls looked confused now.
Because suddenly they could sense something was wrong.
Grace tugged my hand nervously.
Daniel noticed immediately.
And something dark flickered across his face.
“You opened the door,” he said to the girls.
Emily’s lip trembled.
“We just wanted her to meet Mommy.”
Daniel closed his eyes briefly like he was fighting something inside himself.
Then he looked directly at me.
“You weren’t supposed to see this yet.”
Yet.
That word terrified me.
I tightened my grip on the girls.
“What do you mean yet?”
Daniel stepped closer slowly.
“She left me,” he whispered.
I frowned in confusion.
“What?”
His eyes filled with tears that didn’t look entirely sane.
“Rebecca didn’t die in that car accident.”
The room tilted sideways.
“She abandoned us.”
I stared at him.
“No… you told me—”
“I lied.”
The girls looked frightened now.
Tiny faces pale.
Daniel laughed weakly, almost to himself.
“She wanted freedom. Said motherhood was suffocating her.” His jaw tightened violently. “Three months later, she emptied the bank account and disappeared with another man.”
I couldn’t speak.
“So no,” he continued coldly, “my wife didn’t die.”
His eyes drifted toward the shrine.