Chapter 1 - The Wardrobe DoorTrevor was still smiling when the sound of tires rolled across the private driveway.
For half a second, neither he nor Naomi reacted.
They were lying together on the enormous bed in the master bedroom, sunlight spilling through the tall windows, Trevor’s arm resting casually around Naomi’s waist.
Naomi smiled at something he had whispered.
Then an engine shut off outside.
Trevor’s eyes shifted toward the window.
His smile disappeared.
Naomi sat upright.
“What?”
Trevor crossed the room and looked through the glass.
A familiar black SUV had stopped near the front entrance.
His face drained of color.
“Elise is home.”
Naomi stared at him.
“What?”
“She’s home.”
“Didn’t she say she was coming back tomorrow?”
Trevor was already moving.
He grabbed his shirt from the floor.
“I know what she said.”
“Trevor—”
“Get in there.”
He pointed toward the massive built-in wardrobe.
Naomi’s eyes widened.
“You’re serious?”
“Now.”
The panic in his voice changed everything.
Naomi hurried across the bedroom.
Trevor opened the wardrobe.
She stepped inside among Elise’s dresses and coats.
“Don’t make a sound.”
Naomi looked at him from between rows of her sister’s clothing.
“Trevor—what if—”
He shut the doors.
Downstairs, the front door opened.
Trevor dressed quickly, ran both hands through his hair and forced his breathing under control.
By the time he reached the hallway, his expression had transformed.
Elise stood inside the entrance with one suitcase beside her.
Sunny, her golden retriever, was at her feet.
“Elise!”
Her face brightened.
Trevor crossed the hallway and wrapped his arms around her.
“I missed you so much.”
She laughed softly.
“I missed you too.”
He kissed her forehead.
“You must be exhausted. Why don’t we go out for dinner?”
Elise glanced toward her suitcase.
“Sure.”
Trevor’s shoulders loosened.
Then she added, “Let me change first.”
Something flickered across his face.
It lasted less than a second.
But Elise noticed.
“You okay?”
“Of course.”
He smiled.
“Just surprised you’re home.”
“My last meeting got canceled.”
She headed toward the bedroom.
Sunny followed.
Trevor stayed still for one beat too long.
Then he went after them.
Elise entered the bedroom without suspicion.
Sunny crossed the threshold behind her.
Then stopped.
His ears lifted.
His nose turned toward the wardrobe.
His tail began wagging.
Trevor froze.
Sunny walked directly to the doors.
Bark.
Elise looked over.
“Sunny?”
Bark.
Bark.
Trevor stepped forward.
“Sunny! Get out.”
The dog glanced at him.
Then turned back toward the wardrobe.
His tail wagged faster.
Bark.
Elise frowned.
“What’s wrong with him?”
Trevor forced a laugh.
“He probably saw something.”
“In the wardrobe?”
“A bug. A mouse. Who knows?”
“In this house?”
Trevor reached for her arm.
“Come on. You’ve been traveling all day.”
But Elise did not move.
She looked down at Sunny.
The dog was not frightened.
He was excited.
His nose pressed toward the narrow gap beneath the wardrobe doors.
Elise had seen that behavior before.
Whenever Naomi visited, Sunny reacted exactly the same way.
Tail wagging.
Ears raised.
That impatient little bark asking for attention.
Elise slowly looked at Trevor.
His jaw was tight.
Too tight.
“Trevor?”
“What?”
“Why are you nervous?”
“I’m not.”
Bark.
Elise looked at the wardrobe again.
Trevor stepped between her and the doors.
“We’re wasting time.”
She stared at him.
Then around him.
Sunny barked again.
Elise walked forward.
“Elise.”
She kept moving.
“Elise, come on.”
Her hand reached toward the brass handle.
Trevor’s eyes widened.
“Elise, wait—”
She opened the wardrobe.
The doors swung apart.
Naomi stood between Elise’s clothes.
For one impossible second, nobody moved.
Naomi’s face had gone white.
Her lips parted.
Elise stared at her.
Confusion came first.
Then recognition.
Then something deeper.
Something that seemed to empty the air from the room.
“NAOMI?!”
Her younger sister flinched.
Sunny wagged his tail harder.
To him, the mystery had been solved.
Elise looked at Naomi’s bare feet.
Her disheveled hair.
The shirt she had clearly pulled on in a hurry.
Then Elise slowly turned her head.
Trevor stood behind her.
Motionless.
His carefully manufactured smile was gone.
Elise did not scream.
She did not strike him.
She simply stared.
And in that silence, Trevor realized something worse than anger had entered his wife’s face.
Understanding.
Because suddenly Elise knew why her husband had been so desperate to get her out of her own house.
But what she did not yet know—
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was that Naomi had not entered that bedroom merely to betray her marriage.
And hidden inside Naomi’s handbag, buried beneath a silk scarf on the wardrobe floor, was a key Trevor had never intended Elise to see.
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