Chapter 1
The heavy, stifling silence inside the grand mansion foyer was punctuated only by the ragged, silent breathing of seventy-year-old Martha.
She sat huddled in the corner chair, her pale pink cardigan contrasting sharply against the dark bruises blooming across her frail arm.
Thirty-five-year-old Ethan stood frozen near the open double doors, his charcoal grey suit jacket shifting slightly over his broad shoulders.
The heavy leather luggage dropped from his grip, hitting the Italian marble floor with a dull, echoing thud that shook the crystal chandelier.
Thirty-year-old Jessica stood just feet away, her emerald green silk slip dress clinging tightly to her frame as panic flickered in her eyes.
The wooden broom handle lay discarded on the floor where it had clattered just moments before, its wooden grain stained with cruelty.
Twenty-five-year-old Chloe remained knelt beside Martha, her navy blue uniform and white apron serving as a silent banner of protective defiance.
"Darling... you're home early," Jessica purred, forcing a sickly-sweet, theatrical smile onto her face while stepping toward her shell-shocked husband.
May you like
Ethan did not move an inch, his dark eyes locked onto the dark purple bruises visible beneath Martha's rolled-up pale pink sleeve.
A profound, suffocating tension enveloped the entire entryway as the gravity of what he had just witnessed began to settle into his bones.
