After taking a few turns, Daisy arrived at the entrance to a basement. The place was almost connected to the gardens and the door was covered by a shrubs.

Daisy had discovered this place accidentally a few days after she came here when Maria had been punished to do odd jobs and she had done the woman’s works for a day or two when she was in a bad condition.

Daisy had wanted to sneak inside the place to see what but she did not get as much window of time in her day where she could dupe the security. Only having to do it once or twice to meet Ryle was a challenge in itself.

A few days ago, she had mentioned this place in front of Ryle.

But the man had a very distant expression. He told her she would not find anything here.

The way he looked, Daisy could not bring herself to question him further even though she wanted to know a few things.

However, he further said, ’It used to be my mother’s room. She was discarded from the Master bedroom, and shifted to a guest room but soon, they shifted her to that place. She was insulted and abused there. When my little sister was born, she was not taken to hospital. She gave birth there, in that dingy place. I hated how dark that place was and it always made me think that it played a major role in landing her in depression, making her more lost than she already was.’

Daisy crossed the shrubs and stood in front of the door of the basement but when she looked up, the construction of the place appeared to be like that of a tower.

The door was not locked as if this place held no significance at all.

She crossed the threshold but the sight that greeted her made her halt in her tracks. It was dark, pitch black around the place where she stood but the upper part of the place had a few loose bricks and from the gaps, light slipped in.

It was the first time she had stepped foot here but it felt familiar. And suddenly, out of nowhere, the sight of the paintings she had seen in Caleb’s house flashed in her mind. Especially the last painting that had been an accurate resemblance to this place.

An unsettling feeling settled in Daisy’s chest. Ryle believed this place contained nothing that would help them get to bottom of things but she had a feeling that everything was connected to this place. In one way or another, she would find something that would lead her to the bottom of the mystery.

Daisy turned on the flashlight on her phone.

The place was designed in a way that it was almost claustrophobic. There were spider webs everywhere and a thick layer of dust covered every part of what seemed like a storeroom. There was a pungent smell lingering in the place.

Daisy saw a small bed by the wall. The sheet was covered in dust and there were stains on it, the pillow, even the wall. When she saw it closely, she realized that those were dried bloodstains.

Daisy spent a lot of time looking around but there was nothing out of ordinary in the place. Just as Ryle had put, it seemed to be a place where they put his mother to torment her mentally and physically.

But why?

Daisy sat on the bed, examining the bloodstains. The marks seemed different, some splattered bloodstains seemed to come from coughing whereas some seemed to be from external injuries.

Ryle’s mother was from an affluent family, from what she had gathered from Aunty Lu and Ryle’s words. His grandparents were no longer around and he did not seem to have any fond memories of them as well. She was forced into this marriage but still, despite it being a marriage of convenience, what reason did Nathan have to torment her to this extent?

Despite hating her and while being hated by Ryle, he was still tolerating Ryle to this extent. If he valued his children so much then why had he not looked or tried to look for his lost daughter in all these years?

The sound of footsteps made Daisy straighten. She stood up but the sheet had tugged onto her uniform and got pulled with the movement.

Dust flew everywhere and Daisy covered her mouth, suppressing her cough. As the dust settled down, she quickly moved to fix the bedsheet to how it was. But when her fingers slid under the mattress, a solid edge grazed her fingertips.

After the footsteps receded, Daisy lifted the mattress with one hand and pushed her hand inside.

When she pulled her out, she was holding a small notebook in her hand.

There was not even a speck of dust in the notebook. If not for the dulled pages and fragrance, it would have passed for a new one.

Daisy flipped open the notebook. On the first page, a name was written in bold childish letters—Ryle Kingsley.

She flipped another page and there were some basic mathematics done on the pages.

A soft smile appeared on Daisy’s lips as she examined Ryle’s childish handwriting. She reopened the index page again and her fingers trailed the surname ’Kingsley’.

Ironically, he didn’t use that surname anymore.

Daisy closed the notebook but before she could put it aside, something caught her attention. The fore of the notebook had some bloodstains.

Daisy flipped the notebook and opened it from the end, only to find words written on it. And the mature handwriting told her that these writings did not belong to Ryle.

But the words were vague, some pages had sentences, some only had words and some had paragraphs.

Did Ryle’s mother write it?

’He knows’

The first page had this scribbled for almost twenty times.

’He knows’ ’He knows’ ’He knows’

Daisy flipped the page.

’If he finds him, he won’t let him go.’

Daisy continued flipping the pages.