Chapter 1 - The Water Reached the Living RoomEli’s fingers were already locked around the bathtub rim when his knees slipped again.
“Please…”
Water spilled continuously over the white marble edge.
Thick bubbles floated across the flooded bathroom floor.
Eli twisted his head sideways, desperately keeping his nose and mouth clear as Veronica forced him downward.
His wet hair touched the foam.
His forehead followed.
Then one cheek.
Only briefly.
But the terror on his face had nothing to do with how long it lasted.
“Please stop!”
His elbows trembled.
His bare feet slid against the wet stone.
“I won’t look again!”
Veronica tightened her grip on the shoulder of his shirt.
Her jaw clenched so hard the muscles moved beneath her skin.
“You were never supposed to see what you saw!”
Eli sobbed.
“I only saw Dad’s picture!”
Veronica froze.
One second.
Maybe less.
But Eli saw the panic in her eyes.
“I promise I won’t look again.”
Veronica pulled his head back from the water.
“Again?”
Her voice dropped.
“It’s already too late.”
Downstairs, Adrian Mercer entered the mansion carrying his laptop bag.
He had expected to be in Manhattan until seven.
A canceled client dinner brought him home nearly two hours early.
He took three steps across the living room.
Then stopped.
Water touched his shoe.
Adrian looked down.
A thin stream crossed the hardwood floor.
Small patches of white foam drifted through the hallway.
“What the hell?”
He dropped the bag.
Then he heard Eli.
“Please!”
Adrian ran.
The water became deeper near the bathroom hallway.
He reached the open door—
and his mind refused to process what he saw.
Eli was on his knees.
Soaked.
Terrified.
Both hands gripping the bathtub.
Veronica stood behind him.
One hand on his shoulder.
The other forcing his head toward the foam.
“ELI?!”
Veronica turned.
Adrian crossed the bathroom in seconds.
He pulled her away.
Eli fell backward onto the wet floor.
“Adrian, wait—”
He struck Veronica once.
A fast, furious punch that knocked her backward against the vanity.
Then he forgot she existed.
He dropped beside Eli.
“Look at me.”
Eli clung to him.
“Dad…”
“Can you breathe?”
Eli nodded.
“Did you swallow water?”
“No.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
Adrian wrapped a towel around him.
His hands were shaking.
Behind them, Veronica recovered.
“He flooded the bathroom.”
Adrian turned slowly.
“What?”
“He lost control.”
Eli immediately shook his head.
“No.”
Veronica pointed toward the tub.
“He turned the faucet on, started screaming, and when I tried to stop him—”
“I saw you.”
“You saw five seconds.”
“I saw enough.”
“You have no idea what happened before you came in.”
Adrian stared at her.
Then Eli whispered:
“She was mad because I looked.”
Adrian turned.
“Looked at what?”
Eli’s eyes moved toward Veronica.
She went still.
“Eli.”
Adrian heard the warning.
He stepped between them.
“Don’t speak to him.”
Veronica’s mouth tightened.
Adrian looked at his son.
“What did you see?”
Eli swallowed.
“Dad…”
“What?”
“It was her.”
Adrian frowned.
“Her?”
“And Uncle Marcus.”
Everything inside him stopped.
His younger brother.
“What about Marcus?”
Eli’s voice broke.
“They’re the reason Mom ended up like this.”
Adrian stared.
Claire.
Eli’s mother.
Adrian’s ex-wife.
The woman who had been living in a neurological care facility for almost three years after a catastrophic car crash.
A crash everyone had called an accident.
“…Marcus?”
Eli nodded.
Behind Adrian—
Veronica went pale.
Not confused.
Not offended.
Afraid.
That was when Adrian knew the name meant something.
“What did you see?”
“A picture.”
“What picture?”
“You and Mom.”
Adrian felt another shock.
An old photograph of him and Claire had disappeared months earlier.
Veronica said she had put several of Claire’s photographs into storage because Eli kept staring at them at night.
Adrian had argued.
Then given up.
He hated himself for that now.
“Where?”
Eli pointed toward the vanity.
Veronica moved.
Adrian blocked her.
“Don’t.”
“You’re scaring him.”
“I think you handled that yourself.”
He opened the cabinet.
Towels.
Cosmetics.
Cleaning supplies.
No photograph.
Eli whispered:
“She moved it.”
Veronica glared at him.
Adrian saw the hatred.
Not normal frustration with a difficult child.
Something deeper.
“Where is it now?”
Eli reached inside the pocket of his wet pajama pants.
“I took this.”
A tiny black memory card rested in his palm.
Veronica lunged.
“Give me that!”
Adrian caught her wrist.
He stared at her.
“What is on this?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why are you trying to take it?”
“It belongs to me.”
Eli shook his head.
“It was behind Mom’s picture.”
Adrian called 911.
Police arrived eleven minutes later.
By then the water was off.
Eli sat wrapped in blankets.
Veronica was downstairs with an officer.
Adrian inserted the memory card into his laptop while Detective Lena Ford watched.
Four video files appeared.
The first was dated three years earlier.
Two days before Claire’s crash.
Adrian opened it.
Their old garage appeared.
Claire’s car sat in the center.
Then Marcus entered.
Adrian leaned closer.
“What is he doing?”
Marcus walked toward the car.
Five seconds later—
Veronica stepped into frame.
Three years younger.
Long before Adrian claimed he had ever met her.
Adrian stopped breathing.
Marcus looked toward the garage entrance.
Then at Veronica.
“Claire can never know you’re helping me.”
Adrian’s stomach dropped.
Veronica answered:
“She already suspects.”
“What?”
“The money.”
Marcus swore.
Then he disappeared behind Claire’s car.
Veronica whispered:
“You promised nobody gets hurt.”
Marcus turned toward her.
His face was cold.
“Then stop asking questions you don’t want answered.”
The video ended.
Adrian stared at the frozen screen.
For three years he had believed Veronica entered his life long after Claire’s accident.
May you like
That had been a lie.
And the memory card contained three more files.
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