Chapter 2 — The First Fall
# A Fall at Sunset
## Chapter 2 — The First Fall
The photographer asked everyone to gather near the marble staircase overlooking the garden.
Guests raised their champagne glasses.
Laughter echoed across the estate.
Emily stood carefully beside Victoria at the top of the short stone steps.
Ethan was only a few feet away, greeting an elderly business partner.
Victoria wrapped one arm gently around Emily's shoulder.
She smiled for the camera.
"Ready?"
The photographer counted.
"Three..."
"Two..."
"One..."
Just as the camera flashed...
Victoria suddenly shoved Emily's shoulder.
The movement lasted less than a second.
Too fast for anyone to understand.
Emily gasped.
Her heel slipped against the smooth stone.
She instinctively reached for the railing.
Missed.
Then her body tumbled down the steps.
The sound of her body striking the stone echoed through the garden.
Her champagne glass shattered across the pathway.
Guests screamed.
Someone dropped an entire tray of drinks.
Emily cried out in pain as both hands instinctively wrapped around her stomach.
"My baby..."
"My baby..."
Ethan spun around.
For one horrifying moment...
He couldn't understand what he was seeing.
His pregnant wife lay motionless at the bottom of the staircase.
Victoria stared downward with wide eyes.
Then...
Almost instantly...
She transformed.
Her expression collapsed into panic.
"Oh my God!"
She rushed toward Emily before anyone else.
Guests believed they were watching a terrified woman trying to help her injured sister-in-law.
Only Victoria knew the truth.
The first part of her plan had worked perfectly.
