Chapter 109 Chapter 109

Chapter 109 Chapter 109
Hailey’s POV

I paced back and forth in my room, my phone clutched in my hand, staring at the screen for what felt like the hundredth time.

Still no call back from Damien.

I’d tried him three times now. Three separate calls that had gone straight to voicemail or just rang endlessly without answer.

Where was he? What was happening in the city that was keeping him so occupied he couldn’t even take thirty seconds to let me know he was alive?

The worry gnawed at me, mixing with frustration and a growing sense of isolation.

I thought about going to talk to Benita, seeking comfort in friendship, but she’d asked to be alone earlier. Had practically begged for solitude, her grief over Marco still so raw and overwhelming that she couldn’t handle company.

So I was stuck here. Alone with my thoughts and my fears and the secrets I’d discovered in Elena’s room.

My mind kept circling back to those journals hidden beneath the floorboard. To Elena’s words about this safehouse not being safe anymore. To the warning someone had tried to give her before she died.

I needed to read more. Needed to understand what Elena had known, what she’d seen, what had made her feel so unsafe in this supposedly secure location.

But the main problem was Sophia. 

I moved to my door and opened it a crack, peering out into the hallway.

There she was. Still pacing. Walking back and forth like a caged animal, her arms wrapped around herself, her hair disheveled, her face pale and drawn.

She’d been out there for hours. Ever since I’d seen her crying in that corner earlier, she’d been moving through the hallways restlessly, unable or unwilling to settle in her room.

Was she having a breakdown? Was the stress and guilt finally catching up to her?

I didn’t know, and honestly, I didn’t care about the reason. I just needed her to go to her room so I could sneak into Elena’s.

I closed my door quietly and returned to pacing my own room.

Hours passed. The house grew quieter as night deepened. Even the guards seemed to settle into their posts, their movements less frequent.
But Sophia kept pacing.

I lay down on my bed, fully clothed, watching the time tick by on my phone. Midnight. One AM. Two AM.

Still, when I checked the hallway, Sophia was there. Moving like a ghost through the corridors.

Finally, around three in the morning, I peered out again and saw her standing in front of her door. She swayed slightly on her feet, exhaustion clearly overwhelming her.

Then she opened her door and stumbled inside.

I waited, counting slowly to one hundred, making sure she was really settling in for the night.

Then I moved quickly.

I grabbed the master key ring that I’d managed to keep hidden, the one Louis thought I’d returned in full and slipped out into the hallway.
Sophia’s door was closed. I could hear nothing from inside.

And then, feeling petty and vindictive, 
I inserted the key into Sophia’s door lock from the outside and turned it. 

Sophia was locked in her room again.

And this time, she’d really have no idea how it had happened, since she’d been alone when she went inside.

I pulled the key from the lock and, in a moment of complete pettiness, tossed it down the hallway where it slid under a decorative cabinet.

I moved quickly and quietly through the hallway to Elena’s room. 

I unlocked Elena’s door, slipped inside, and locked it again behind me.

The room was dark and musty as before. I used my phone’s flashlight to navigate to the bed, then knelt down beside it.

I pressed on the loose tile the way I’d discovered before, and it popped up, revealing the hidden compartment.

Inside were the two journals I’d found earlier. I pulled out the first one, the one I’d started reading before.

I settled with my back against the bed, my phone propped up to provide light, and opened the journal to where I’d left off.

Elena’s handwriting flowed across the page, neat but hurried, as if she’d been writing quickly to get her thoughts down before they escaped her.

“Someone is always watching me when Damien is away. I can feel eyes on me constantly.
The guards are supposed to be protecting me, but some of them make me uncomfortable. The way they look at me. And I’ve heard Conversations that stop abruptly when I walk into a room.
Yesterday I heard two of them talking near the kitchen. I couldn’t make out most of it, but I caught fragments. Something about ‘the timeline’ and ‘when he’s not here’ and then one of them said something that….”

That’s where the entry ended. Mid-sentence. Like Elena had been interrupted or had to stop writing suddenly.

I flipped to the next page, desperate to know what had made her blood run cold.

But before I could read another word, I heard the unmistakable sound of a key in the door lock.

My heart stopped. Someone was coming in.
I moved with panic-fueled speed, shoving the journal behind my back while simultaneously pressing the floor tile back into place with my other hand.

The compartment closed just as the door swung open.

Light flooded the room, and Louis stood in the doorway, his expression shocked.

“Miss Hailey?” he said, his eyes widening as he took in the scene, me kneeling beside Elena’s bed in the middle of the night. “What are you doing in here?”

My mind raced, searching for an explanation, any excuse that would make sense.

“I… I couldn’t sleep,” I said, forcing my voice to remain calm even though my heart was pounding. “I was walking around the house and I saw this door was unlocked. I was curious.”

“This door is supposed to be sealed,” Louis said, stepping into the room. His eyes scanned the space, looking for signs of disturbance. 

“Mr. Alejandro specifically said no one should be in Elena’s room.”

“I know,” I said, slowly standing up, keeping the journal pressed against my back, hidden by my body. “I’m sorry. I just… I wanted to understand her better. The woman Damien loved before me.”