One day, as Candace is folding her laundry, she gets a mysterious phone call telling her to check out her basement.
Thinking that she’s being pranked, Candace almost ignores it, until her gut tells her that she owes it to herself to see if there’s anything there. She does exactly as she’s told, and searches the brick wall in the basement only to find herself in a red room of doom. I was folding laundry when the phone rang. It was an unknown number. Normally, I wouldn’t pick up, but something in me, a gut feeling, made me answer.
“Hello?” I said.
A woman’s voice crackled through the line, urgent and sharp.
“Candace, you don’t know me,” she said. “But I strongly suggest you check the basement of your house. You’ll learn a lot about your husband. The door will open if you press the fifth brick to the right of the wooden cabinet.”
Before I could ask who she was, she hung up. I stood there, holding a mismatched sock, my heart thudding in my chest. I glanced around in our cozy new home. My husband, Nick, had handled all the construction, insisting that I stay out of it.
“It’ll be a surprise,” he’d said with a grin.
And it was fine with me because Nick was in construction and design, so I trusted him completely. When the renovations were over, Nick was right about it being a surprise. It was cozy with just the right blend of rustic charm and modern elements that spoke to Nick’s artistic side.
I loved how our home turned out.
But now I felt a creeping dread as I looked toward the basement door.
“You’re being paranoid, Candace,” I told myself. “This is probably just another prank because kids are stupid these days.”
But there was something about the woman’s voice. She had an edge to her voice that I couldn’t ignore; there was a seriousness that sent a chill down my spine.
“Nope,” I said. “Let’s go see if there’s any truth to what she was on about.”
I put down the laundry and made my way downstairs.
The basement was cool and quiet, and we hadn’t really done much with it yet. I had wanted Nick to turn it into an office space for us both.
“It will be better, honey,” I said. “It’s away from everyone and everything during the day. And when we have kids, we’ll be able to remove ourselves from the noise.”
“Yeah, I think that’s a good idea,” Nick agreed. “Let’s just finish doing the pool area, and then we can focus on this.”
So far, we had only left a couch, a bookshelf, and a wooden cabinet, the same cabinet that the woman had mentioned, in the basement. When I walked down the stairs, I counted five bricks to the right and pressed the brick the woman told me to.
There was a faint click that almost had me fainting.
Behind me, a section of the wall slid open. A door. My breath caught in my throat.
“What the actual heck is this?” I exclaimed.
I had absolutely no idea this was here. Why didn’t Nick mention it?
I stepped inside, my hand groping for a light switch. When I found it, I flipped the switch and was stunned by what I saw.
I was standing inside a fully furnished room.
But that wasn’t even the best part of it.
The room was a bedroom, decked out entirely in shades of red. Deep red silk sheets on a king-sized bed. Plush crimson carpet. Velvet curtains in the same rich hue. A flat-screen TV mounted on the wall. Even a mini-fridge stocked with champagne and snacks.
“Okay, what the hell?” I asked myself.
My eyes traveled to a dresser in the corner, and a sinking feeling took hold in my stomach.
Honestly, what could be in this dresser that wasn’t incriminating?
With shaky hands, I opened the dresser drawers to find them filled with women’s lingerie. All delicate lace and smooth satin, all in various shades of red and black.
I lifted a pair with trembling hands. None of this was mine.
“Who? What? Why?” I shouted to the room.
Why on earth would my husband set up a secret bedroom down here if he wasn’t up to nonsense? Why would he need all of these expensive things? And the secrecy?
Nick is cheating.
Nick had been so meticulous about this house, so secretive about his little projects, that I never questioned any of it. But now it suddenly made sense, why he was always encouraging me to go on all those business trips. And as a food writer, there were a lot of long nights and business trips.
“Oh goodness,” I told myself as I clutched my stomach.
I felt sick. I sank down onto the edge of the bed, the silky sheets cool under my fingertips. How many times had he brought someone here? While I was working to build our future, he was living a lie, right under my nose.
I knew I needed proof. I needed to catch him in the act.
I couldn’t confront him without any evidence because my husband was a smooth talker. He would probably lie and say that the room had been there along and belonged to the people who owned the house before us.
I called him.
“Hey, honey,” I said. “I’ve just gotten a last-minute call from a hotel. They’re presenting a new menu tonight, so that means I’ve got to be there to write about it. I’m packing now, and I’ll head out in an hour or two.”
There was a pause.
“That’s a bit rushed, Candace,” Nick said. “But I guess when work calls, you’ve just got to go. I’ll see you when you get back. Be safe!”
I could almost hear the relief in his voice. He thought he was in the clear and that he would have the house to himself.
Perfect.
I packed my toiletries in a bag and hid them away in my closet, just in case Nick noticed that they were still in the bathroom. Then, I slipped into the basement, ready to just sit in the red room of doom while he made his way home.
Sitting there, I wondered what type of woman would willingly come to a place like this. I wondered if his women knew that he was married. I wondered what they thought about me.
That evening, around six, I heard the front door open and close. There were footsteps and laughter. And soon, the voices got louder as they made their way down to the basement.
I quickly hid in the closet, which only had two red gowns, and left the door cracked just enough to see.
They entered the room, giggling like teenagers sneaking around. My blood boiled hearing them.
“Oh, Nick,” the woman said. “I love coming to this place. It makes me forget everything about the world.”
Nick laughed and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her neck.