Chapter 2: The Room Nobody Knew Existed
I don’t remember picking up the phone.
I don’t remember calling emergency services.
I only remember standing there while my entire world rearranged itself around one impossible thought.
Leo could have been alive.
For fourteen months, we had searched forests.
Roads.
Buildings.
Everywhere except beneath the feet of someone we trusted.
The police arrived twenty minutes later.
Those twenty minutes felt like years.
Elena sat on the couch with her hands folded tightly in her lap.
Sarah refused to sit.
She stood beside me, staring at the floor.
Neither of us spoke.
Because what could we say?
What sentence could possibly exist for that moment?
Our son might be below us.
Or he might not.
Hope was cruel.
After losing someone, hope didn’t feel like a gift anymore.
It felt like a knife.
Because hope meant you could still lose them again.
An officer named Daniel Ruiz arrived with another investigator.
He looked at the floor, then at Elena.
“You’re saying you heard something?””
I answered.
“My daughter heard it first.””
The officer looked at Maya.
She was sitting beside Sarah now, holding her mother’s hand.
“She says her brother is underneath the floor.””
The officer’s expression softened.
He had probably heard hundreds of strange things from grieving families.
But then Maya spoke.
“His blanket is blue.””
Everyone looked at her.
She continued.
“The one with the stars.””
Sarah’s face collapsed.
Because she knew.
Leo’s favorite blanket was blue.
Dark blue.
Covered with tiny yellow stars.
It had disappeared with him.
We never found it.
Not in the woods.
Not in our house.
Now my six-year-old daughter was describing it.
The officer crouched down.
“Maya, sweetheart, did you see your brother?””
She shook her head.
“No.””
“Then how do you know?””
She frowned.
Like she didn’t understand why adults made everything complicated.
“He told me.””
The officer glanced at me.
I expected him to dismiss it.
Instead, he simply nodded.
“Let’s check the floor.””
That was when Elena finally broke.
“No.””
Everyone stopped.
The officer turned.
“No?””
She looked terrified.
“I mean…”
She struggled to find words.
“I mean, maybe we should leave it alone until we know what we’re doing.””
The investigator stared at her.
“Ma’am, if there’s a possibility someone is trapped under your floor, we’re not leaving it alone.””
Elena looked at me.
Not the officer.
Me.
And that hurt more than anything.
Because it meant she knew I was the one she needed to convince.
“Please,” she whispered.
I felt something inside me crack.
“Please what?””
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Please don’t make me lose another person.””
The sentence made no sense.
Not until later.
Not until I understood what she meant.
The officers removed several boards near the area Maya had pointed to.
Every second felt unbearable.
The house that had seemed perfect suddenly felt like a crime scene.
The white walls.
The expensive furniture.
The carefully arranged decorations.
It all looked fake.
Like a beautiful painting covering something rotten underneath.
When the first board came up, everyone leaned forward.
There was a small space beneath.
Empty.
The officer shined a flashlight inside.
“Nothing here.””
I felt my knees weaken.
Then Maya screamed.
“Not there!””
Everyone jumped.
She pointed farther across the room.
“Under the other side.””
The officer frowned.
“You’re sure?””
Maya nodded.
“He moved.””
Nobody laughed.
Nobody questioned her.
Because by then, everyone in that room understood something strange was happening.
They opened another section.
This time, the wood resisted.
The officer looked confused.
“There’s something underneath.””
My heart stopped.
The boards were removed carefully.
A hidden compartment appeared beneath the floor.
Not a basement.
Not exactly.
A narrow space.
A place someone had built and covered.
The flashlight moved inside.
Then stopped.
The officer’s face changed.
I knew before he spoke.
I knew because adults have a certain expression when they see something they wish they hadn’t.
“There’s a bag.””
They pulled it out.
A small backpack.
Blue.
Covered with cartoon planets.
Leo’s backpack.
Sarah screamed his name.
And I collapsed.
Because after fourteen months of searching for my son…
We had finally found something.
But it wasn’t Leo.
It was proof.
Proof that someone had hidden him.
And the person who had hidden him knew our family.
The officer opened the backpack carefully.
Inside was a notebook.
A water bottle.
A broken flashlight.
And a folded piece of paper.
He unfolded it.
His face became pale.
“What does it say?”” I demanded.
He looked at me.
Then at Elena.
“It has a date.””
“What date?””
He hesitated.
“The day after Leo disappeared.””
Nobody moved.
Nobody breathed.
May you like
Then he read the words written underneath.
“Don’t trust Aunt Elena.””
