The bright summer sun was shining over the grand family estate on a warm Saturday afternoon.
Marcus standing in the middle of the crowded living room, holding a glass of iced lemonade.
He was talking happily to his family lawyer about the huge family inheritance coming his way soon.
Many close friends and neighbors were visiting the large house for a backyard barbecue party.
Everyone believed that Marcus was a loving husband and a caring father to his daughter, Lily.
They thought his wife Sarah had abandoned the family six long months ago without saying goodbye.
Marcus had told the entire town that Sarah took off with millions from her trust fund.
Young Lily always felt in her heart that her father was telling a terrible lie.
She missed her kind mother every single day and prayed for her sudden return home.
Lily was sitting upstairs in her quiet bedroom, looking at an old framed photo of her mom.
She wiped a warm tear from her soft cheek and looked toward the hallway outside.
A strange, quiet knocking sound came floating up through the air from deep below the floor.
Lily put the wooden picture frame down on her bed and stood up slowly.
She walked down the quiet hallway, following the soft rhythmic thuds echoing through the house.
The noise led her straight to the locked basement door hidden behind the main dining room.
Marcus had kept that heavy wooden door double locked with a steel padlock for many months.
He always told Lily that the room held old furnace pipes and broken structural walls.
Lily pressed her right ear against the cold dark wood of the solid basement frame.
She heard a low, raspy gasp for breathing air coming from the dark space inside.
A weak female voice called out her name in a quiet, painful whisper from behind wood.
Sarah: Lily... please help me... I am so cold in here...
Lily gasped out loud in total shock as her heart started beating very fast inside.
She recognized that sweet, gentle voice instantly because it belonged to her missing mother.
Her father had lied to the whole town while keeping her mother trapped down below.
Lily knew she had to take action right away to save her mother's life.
She turned around quickly and ran straight toward the dusty tool shed in the backyard.
The guests outside were laughing and eating barbecue chicken under the big colorful patio tent.
Lily grabbed a heavy iron claw hammer from the top shelf inside the wooden shed.
She held the thick handle tightly in both hands and ran back into the house.
The guests turned their heads in confusion as the young girl rushed down the hallway.
Marcus saw his daughter holding the heavy hammer and dropped his drink onto the carpet.
Marcus: Lily! What on earth are you doing with that tool right now?
Lily: You lied to me about my mom! She is trapped behind this door!
Marcus ran forward through the shocked crowd of guests to stop his determined young daughter.