Chapter 1 - THE MARBLE FLOOR
Serena Montigue was dragging fourteen-month-old Ethan Blackwood across the marble floor when I ran at her.
“STOP!”
His pale blue onesie twisted beneath her arm. His little bare feet scraped the stone while he screamed hard enough to choke on his own breath.
Serena released him.
For half a second, I thought she had listened.
Then she turned and drove her heel straight into my stomach.
Pain exploded under my ribs.
I hit the marble on my back, air ripped from my lungs, both hands wrapping instinctively over my abdomen.
Ethan sat three feet away, crying so violently his entire body shook.
I pushed onto one elbow.
“Ethan.”
Serena stepped between us.
Her white dress barely moved as she lifted one heel and slammed it down beside my hand.
The crack against the marble made me flinch.
She leaned over me.
“No one is going to believe a cheap nanny.”
I crawled left.
She blocked me.
I crawled right.
She moved again.
Ethan reached toward me with both hands.
“Li... Li...”
My chest broke at the sound.
Then heavy footsteps came from the dark hallway.
Serena froze.
Victor Blackwood appeared beneath the archway in his black suit, white shirt open at the collar. He had been gone since sunrise for a meeting downtown.
He looked at Ethan.
Then at me.
Then at Serena standing over both of us.
Something changed in his face.
“Stay away from my son.”
Serena spun around. “Victor, I can explain.”
She bent toward Ethan.
Victor crossed the foyer in three strides.
He grabbed Serena’s wrist, yanked her back, and shoved her away from the child.
Then he dropped to his knees.
Ethan practically threw himself into his father’s arms.
Victor held him against his chest.
I managed to get onto one knee.
My stomach felt like someone had buried a hot stone inside it.
I pointed at Serena.
“She didn’t do this alone.”
Victor looked at me.
Serena went white.
That reaction told me more than anything she could have said.
Victor’s voice lowered.
“Who?”
“I don’t know.”
Serena laughed too quickly. “Convenient.”
I ignored her.
“Someone shut off the foyer cameras.”
Victor’s eyes sharpened.
I had noticed the tiny green indicator over the arch disappear less than a minute before Serena came downstairs with Ethan.
The cameras were never off.
Not when contractors came.
Not during parties.
Not even when the family traveled.
Victor stood with Ethan still pressed against him.
“Security room.”
Serena stepped forward. “Victor, she attacked me first.”
He didn’t look at her.
“Don’t move.”
Ten minutes later, the four of us stood outside the security office while Victor’s head of residential security, Daniel Reeves, pulled up the system log.
I watched the color drain from his face.
“What?” Victor asked.
Daniel swallowed.
“The foyer camera was manually disabled.”
Serena folded her arms. “By her, obviously.”
Daniel shook his head.
“She doesn’t have authorization.”
Victor looked at the screen.
“When?”
“Thirty-seven seconds before the incident.”
“And who authorized it?”
Daniel hesitated.
I saw Victor notice.
“Say it.”
Daniel enlarged the access record.
The credential belonged to Victor Blackwood.
But Victor had been downtown when the camera went dark.
Someone inside that mansion had used his identity to erase eleven minutes.
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And Serena had known those minutes would disappear.
📖 Victor thought the stolen credential was the biggest problem in the house, but the first person he questioned gave us a reason to fear something much larger. 👇
