Maid: Stop! You must not open that door!
The maid rushed forward, her white apron fluttering as she grabbed Lily's skinny arm to yank the heavy hammer out of her small hands.
Lily: Let go of me! Let me go right now!
Maid: You are making a terrible mess, little girl! Your stepmother strictly forbade anyone from touching this hatch!
Lily: My mother is inside! Please don't stop me! I heard her calling me!
Maid: Your mother left three weeks ago! She moved to Europe! Your father and your stepmother told us so themselves!
Lily: They lied to you! They locked her in the basement cellar! Mommy, scream again so they believe me!
Lily twisted out of the maid's grip, raised the hammer high above her head, and brought it down square onto the middle latch.
The iron bar snapped with a loud, deafening crack, splitting the old lock right down the center.
Butler: Good lord! She actually broke the padlock!
Maid: Step back, child! That cellar has been condemned for over twenty years! It isn't safe down there!
Lily: I don't care about safe! Mommy, push from the bottom!
Lily jammed her fingernails under the rough edge of the wooden hatch, pulling upward with all her strength.
The heavy oak floorboard swung open with a creaking groan, exposing a dark, pitch-black square opening in the middle of the luxury foyer.
A cold, damp draft shot up into the warm room, smelling of mold, dust, and dried blood.
Lily: Mommy!
A pale, bruised arm reached out from the darkness below, her thin fingers clawing desperately at the edge of the marble floor.
Mother: Lily... my baby girl...
Maid: Oh my sweet heaven! Is that... is that Mrs. Vance?
Butler: How is this possible? She was supposed to be in Paris!
A man in a sleek black tuxedo walked into the foyer from the study holding a glass of scotch, stopping dead in his tracks.
Man: What on earth is all this noise about? I told you staff to keep that child quiet—
The man dropped his crystal glass, letting it shatter into a hundred pieces across the floor as his eyes landed on the open hatch.
Man: What is she doing in there?
Lily: She didn't go to Paris! You locked her down there so you could take her trust fund money!
Mother: Julian... you... you helped her do this to me...
Man: Eleanor? God... Eleanor, I didn't know you were down there! I swear I thought you left the country!
Mother: You lying coward! You helped Victoria draft the transfer papers while I was starving in the dark!
Eleanor pulled her broken body up over the wooden lip, collapsing onto the cold marble floor as Lily threw her arms around her neck.