Chapter 21 · The Third Voice

"Stop moving." Daniel's hand clamped on my wrist before I could reach the wall.

"She said the third witness is inside me." I twisted against his grip. "What does that even mean?"

"It means you don't touch anything until we figure it out." His voice was flat, but his pulse hammered against my arm. "The house doesn't hand out answers. It trades."

"Then let's trade." I pulled harder. "You want the contract read? Fine. I'll read it. But you tell me what you left behind first."

His fingers loosened. Not much. Just enough that I felt the shift.

"I told you," he said. "I can't leave."

"That's not what I asked."

The walls dripped. Not metaphor. Actual water, running down the plaster in thin streams, pooling on the floorboards. The air tasted like rust and old pond scum.

"Your mother," Daniel said finally. "She was here. Ten years ago. She didn't drown in the lake."

I went still.

"She drowned here," he said. "In this room. The contract took her because someone else broke a deal."

"Who."

"I don't know their name. I only saw the body after."

"Liar." I shoved him back. He didn't resist.