The Secret Room

Chloe's POV

 

 

 

 

Our beloved town was more than eighty years old, but the friendship between the Black family and the Crane family had existed for longer than that.

 

It started with my great-grandfather Carl Black and his childhood friend Shane Crane roaming far away from home to become pioneers of the land soon to be known as Lyfette.

Their friendship continued on through their sons Lyle Black and Conner Crane. Lyle Black(my grandfather) gave birth to Philip and Sylvester Black. Mr Conner gave birth to Beaumont and James Crane. Philip Black gave birth to yours truly and Tyler.

His older brother Sylvester gave birth to Kyle. Mr Beaumont gave birth to Miles and Alicia. Those three boys have been the bane of my existence. Alicia wasn't much better.

 

Three generations and there had never been a female child born into either the Crane or black family--until Alicia and I.

Given how close our families have been for generations,it was obvious that a union between the Crane and Black family was going to be the talk of the town.

Inviting six hundred plus top echelon in the society was beyond even my own imagination.

 

"Good afternoon Miss Black" The butler, Mr Eric welcomed me amiably.

 

Kyle had an ongoing mission to make him call us by our given names. I had no doubt he was fighting a lost battle. I'll admit it was weird having him call us with honorifics given that he had watched us grow into adulthood, but Mr Eric was a stickler for tradition.

 

"Hi Eric" I replied cheerfully, making my way into the house.

 

The last two months had been a flurry of planning and fitting appointments. James had been absent from most of it while I was stuck with the wedding planner from hell.

I was certain she was a drill sergeant in a previous life. James was not going to duck out anymore though, I was here to make him attend my second fitting with the designer.

After the fitting I could finally spend some quality time with my fiancé. My fiancé.

 

I was engaged to marry the man of my dreams. Most days it still felt like a dream. It would soon be a reality though, I thought happily as I caressed the huge painting in the west wing.

Shane and Carl shared a lot of things, including the same idea on how to raise their families.

The Black House was built with the same plan in mind as the Crane House.

Our House was slightly bigger than the Cranes' but they had more land, to cater for the horses the raced. Each house had an east and west wing. To be split in equal parts between the first two children and their families.

In the event there were more children, there were excess lands for more houses to be built.

I was in the west wing, James' part of the house... well, soon to be my part of the house too.

 

"Jamie"I called,announcing my presence in his rooms.

I made directly for his private library slash office, ignoring the living room and bedroom. James had an actual home office but he preferred to use the library in his rooms as his office.

 

James' excuse for missing the fitting appointments was that he had a big project he was working on. I was here in part because of that. James worked too hard in my opinion. He already had enough money, there was no reason for him to work himself into the ground just to make more. He was going to take the rest of the day off even if I had to make him.

A door connected his living room to the library. I opened it expecting to find my fiancé, instead I was greeted by a disturbing sight.

At the far end of the library, Miles was going through a desk in a small room.

 

A room that existed where the wall should have been.