Chapter 9 - THE LOWER KITCHEN
The key opened a steel door beneath the pantry.
A second kitchen lay below the mansion.
Same layout.
Same sink.
Same security camera.
Same service counter.
Women had been trained there to perform as Carter wives.
Claire.
Anna.
Clara.
Others.
The walls held schedules.
Speech patterns.
Preferred clothing.
Household punishments.
The dirty dishes upstairs were part of a repeated conditioning exercise.
One woman washed while another watched.
One woman broke.
One woman replaced her.
The archive showed fourteen “Claras” across three generations.
The name was not a person.
It was a household role.
Then Clara found a photograph of herself as a child inside the lower kitchen.
Beside her stood Margaret.
And another girl.
Sienna.
They had been raised together.
Clara looked at her.
“You knew me before Julian.”
Sienna nodded.
“We were both trained.”
“Then why did you do this?”
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“Because they told me only one of us could stay in the family.”
Read Chapter 10 to discover why Sienna chose power over Clara.
