Under_The_Whispering_Door_by_TJ_Klune

faded as he glanced at Wallace. “Come with me.”
“I don’t want to go through the door,” Wallace blurted. “I’m not ready.”
“The door,” Hugo repeated.
“At the top of the stairs.”
“Grandad.”
“Eh?” Nelson said, cupping his ear. “Can’t hear you. Must be going deaf.
Woe is me. As if my life wasn’t hard enough already. No one should talk to
me for the rest of the night so I can collect myself again.”
Hugo shook his head. “You’ll get yours, old man.”
Nelson snorted. “Shows what you know.”
Hugo glanced at Wallace. “I’m not going to take you to the door. Not until
you’re ready. I promise.”
Wallace didn’t know why, but he believed him. “Where are we going?”
“I want to show you something. It won’t take long.”
Mei was glaring at him. “You try to run again, I’ll drag you back by your
hair.”
Wallace had been threatened before—many times, in fact; such was the
life of a lawyer—but this was one of the first times he actually believed it.
For someone so small, she was positively terrifying.
Before he could speak, Hugo said, “Mei, could you finish up the prep
work for tomorrow? Shouldn’t be much left. I got through most of it before
you got back.”
She muttered more threats as she pushed by Hugo and headed through the
double doors behind the counter. As the doors swung back and forth, Wallace
could see what looked to be a large kitchen, the appliances steel, the floor
covered in square tiles.
Hugo nodded toward a hallway at the back of the room. “Come on. You’ll
like this, I think.”
Wallace doubted that immensely.