Chapter 1
The heavy silence inside the grand living room was punctuated only by the ragged, painful breathing of twenty-eight-year-old Elena.
She lay half-submerged in the glittering remnants of the shattered glass coffee table, her pale blue maternity dress stained with dust and crimson blood.
Thirty-two-year-old Marcus stood frozen in his charcoal grey suit and navy blue tie, his eyes locked onto the terrifying scene unfolding before him.
The neatly folded US flag resting inside the glass display case in the background hallway seemed to watch over the sudden catastrophe in solemn judgment.
Claire spun around instantly, her emerald green silk blouse rustling as she dropped her cold, calculating expression into a mask of pure terror.
Her manicured hands flew up to cover her mouth, her eyes widening as she forced a subtle, trembling tremor into her posture.
"Marcus... she just attacked me," Claire whimpered, her voice cracking with manufactured vulnerability as she pointed a shaking finger toward the floor.
Marcus did not blink, his gaze slowly shifting upward from the broken glass to the small dome security camera blinking a steady red on the ceiling.
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The low cinematic bass tone that had begun to swell in the room suddenly dropped into an absolute, suffocating dead silence.
"We installed the cameras yesterday," Marcus stated with chilling, breathy restraint, his voice cutting through the tense air like a razor-sharp blade.
