What Lies Beneath Review Novels & Stories

"W-We were worried you would be nervous on your first night home! We were just joking to help you relax." Gillian and Keith nodded repeatedly. "Yes! That's right! The joke was poorly timed. We'll be more careful in the future!" I smiled, switched the stun gun back on, and shocked all three of them again. "Still lying, huh? I already know who the real heiress is." Orson forced a strained smile. "What are you talking about? The heiress is obviously you." "The DNA test proved it. There's no doubt about that." "Hurry up and untie us. Stop messing around, alright?"

Taking that moment, Derek made his move by opening the window and jumping out. I shoved Claudia off me, pushed past Bailey at the window, and looked down. Luckily, I had prepared in advance. I had a miniature camera hanging around my neck, so I wasn’t afraid of either woman trying to frame me. I leaned out the window to check. Everything outside was silent. Derek had jumped without his clothes. In such a short time, there was no way he could’ve run out of the complex. The only possibility was that he was hiding in the bushes, right where I’d planted the stinging weeds for him.

He looked at my father and gave Dave a very hard look, then walked out. “What are you doing here?” “That's not how you speak to your husband, Rhea.” My father's voice was calm. I sat up straighter, ignoring the pain shooting through my ribs. “I don't know what he told you, but it's all lies. Every word…” “I know everything.” He cut me off. “The surrogate. The ex-girlfriend. The donor eggs due to your medical complications. Which part is the lie?” My mouth opened in disbelief. “You…you can't actually think this is okay.”

I blink and look at Felicia. “Why wouldn’t I be?” She hesitates carefully. “You seem distracted.” I almost laugh. Distracted. Right. Definitely not because Alexander Sterling decided to bulldoze back into my life with flowers, cheesecake, and emotional damage. “Focus on your tablet, Felicia.” “Yes, ma’am.” But I catch the tiny smile she hides afterward. Traitor. Bridgewood Heights is not a building yet. It is possibility. Wide stretches of cleared land spread across the site beneath the harsh morning sun. White chalk markings and string lines divide sections of earth into future structures only architects and engineers can fully visualize.

"When you spread lies that I was a servant and turned the whole campus against me, did that make you feel dignified? When you threw the bloodstained sheets into my washbasin and tried to force me to wash them, did that make you feel dignified?" Her lips moved, but no words came out. "The real poverty is inside you, not in your bank account. You think the world owes you everything. When you can't have something, you resent the people who do. You hate them and try to destroy them. You think everyone owes you, so you turn the whole world into your enemy. Viola… That's the most pathetic thing about you." Her mouth opened, but she could not speak. Then, she lowered her head, her shoulders shaking

His heart hammered against his ribs, a frantic drum against the hum of the drone hovering menacingly above them. "Below?" Lia whispered, her voice thin with disbelief, her eyes wide with a fresh wave of dread. She looked from the empty air to the pulsating drone, then down, past the cascading, iridescent Nectar, into the dizzying depths of the city. "What could be below?" Riska’s device, which had been shrieking moments before, now flickered, attempting to re-establish a stable reading. Her face was pale, drawn, her brow furrowed in intense concentration.

Her eyes locked onto the scan. And her blood ran cold. “It broke through.” Silence hit for half a second. A new alert slammed across the system. FOUNDATION BREACH DETECTED LEVEL: BELOW STRUCTURAL GRID Adrian stared at it, disbelief flashing across his face. “Below the grid? That’s not even...” “Mapped,” Lyra finished, her voice barely steady. Another rumble surged upward, stronger, closer. Whatever was down there, wasn’t just moving anymore. It was rising. Adrian tightened his hold on her, pulling her slightly behind him like that would somehow protect her from something buried miles beneath them.

Everyone nearly collided into him. “What is it?” Ariadna whispered. Elias stared ahead into the darkness below them. His expression had gone completely pale. “No…” A cold knot tightened in Ava’s stomach. “What?” Slowly Very slowly A new light flickered on beneath them in the darkness. Blue. Cold. Artificial. Then another. And another. Rows of hidden underground lights activated far below the stairwell one after another. Illuminating something massive beneath the earth. Something buried deeper than Lazarus. Damien looked down once

I'll keep lying. I'll have to keep pretending to be Maria Davidson while Amelia Stone hides underneath the surface.

The story, the fallout, or her. She reached the door, then froze. The assistant’s voice shook. “There’s more—a second message. Anonymous. They say—” Lila spun back, breath caught in her throat. Lucien looked at her, eyes wide and face drained of color. Lila leaned in, eyes going wide as the headline blazed across the screen: “Cole Medical Under Review – Scandal and Data Falsification Exposed.” Her pulse kicked up. Her father’s name, her father’s death—now this. One article, and everything could fall apart.