Emma spent the next day in the library, researching old records. After hours of searching, she found what she was looking for - a marriage certificate for Eleanor Carter and a man named William Holloway.
A name she had never heard before.
Her hands shook as she turned the pages of an old newspaper archive. Then she found it.
"Local Businessman William Holloway Goes Missing - Presumed Dead."
Emma gasped. Her grandmother had been married to a man who had mysteriously vanished? And no one had ever mentioned it?
She raced home and unlocked the wooden box again. This time, she noticed a hidden compartment at the bottom. She pried it open and found a final, crumpled letter.
"Emma, my dear, I had to protect you. William didn't disappear. He was taken. They wanted something from him - something he never gave them. And now, they might come for you. I am sorry for keeping this from you. Trust no one. Find the vault in the old chapel. The truth lies within."
Emma's world tilted. Who had taken her grandfather? And why?
As she gathered her things, ready to follow her grandmother's last instructions, a knock echoed through the empty house.
Her breath caught.
The nightmare wasn't over. It was just beginning.