Chapter 1 - The Door I Was Never Supposed to Open
The first thing I heard when I walked into my house was crying.
Not the quiet kind.
It was the broken, terrified sound of someone trying desperately not to make noise.
I stopped in the foyer.
My hand was still wrapped around the handle of my suitcase.
For three seconds, I couldn't understand what I was hearing.
Then came another sound.
A sharp crack.
A woman's voice followed.
"You think you can lie to me?"
My blood went cold.
I knew that voice.
Victoria.
My fiancée.
I dropped my suitcase.
"Victoria?"
Silence.
Then another scream.
I ran toward the dining room.
The doors were half-open.
I pushed them apart.
And everything inside me stopped.
Our maid, Mia Carter, was on the floor beside the dining table.
Her black uniform was wrinkled. One sleeve was torn. Her hair had fallen across her face, and one arm was raised protectively over her head.
Victoria stood above her.
She was wearing the ivory silk dress she'd bought for the charity dinner we were supposed to attend that evening.
In her hand was a thin black riding crop.
Her face was twisted with rage.
I stared at her.
She stared at me.
For a moment, nobody moved.
Then Victoria slowly lowered the crop.
"Daniel."
I looked at Mia.
Her cheek was red.
There were bruises forming along her forearm.
Something inside my chest cracked.
"What happened?"
Victoria immediately stepped forward.
"It isn't what it looks like."
I laughed once.
It wasn't a happy laugh.
"You're standing over her with a weapon."
"She stole from me."
Mia shook her head violently.
"No, sir."
Victoria turned toward her.
"Shut up."
I stepped between them.
"Don't."
Victoria froze.
I'd never spoken to her like that.
Not once in the four years we'd been together.
Her eyes narrowed.
"You came home early."
"Yes."
"How early?"
"Two hours."
Her face changed.
Only for a fraction of a second.
But I saw it.
Fear.
Then she recovered.
"Daniel, please. Let me explain."
I looked around the room.
Our expensive dining table.
The crystal glasses.
The flowers Victoria had ordered that morning.
And beneath it all, the unmistakable atmosphere of something terrible having happened.
I reached into my coat pocket.
Victoria's eyes followed my hand.
I pulled out my phone.
"I already know what happened."
She swallowed.
"What?"
I turned the screen toward her.
"The cameras."
Victoria went completely still.
Mia stared at me.
I continued.
"The security system recorded everything."
Victoria's face drained of color.
"You're lying."
"No."
I raised the phone.
"And every second was uploaded automatically to the cloud."
She took one step backward.
I had never seen my fiancée look afraid of me before.
But that wasn't even the worst part.
The worst part was what she whispered next.
"You weren't supposed to come home today."
My eyes narrowed.
"What did you say?"
Victoria realized her mistake.
She opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
Behind me, Mia began to cry again.
And suddenly, I understood something.
This wasn't about stolen money.
It wasn't about a missing necklace.
It wasn't even about the maid.
Something much bigger had been happening inside my house.
May you like
Something everyone except me seemed to know about.
And I had just walked into the middle of it.
