Chapter 1 - THE CAMERA IN THE SMOKE DETECTOR
Ethan forced my wrist toward the glowing glass stovetop.
“You will learn not to question me.”
The heat pressed against my skin without touching it. I twisted hard enough to pull my hand free, but the movement destroyed my balance.
I struck the floor beside the white kitchen island.
Pain moved through my wrist and shoulder. I drew one sharp breath, then another, trying not to panic.
Lorraine stood three feet away with a glass of red wine in her hand.
My mother in law looked at me as though I had spilled something expensive.
“She needs to know her place.”
Ethan leaned over me.
His light blue shirt remained perfectly tucked into his trousers. Anyone seeing him from the hallway might have believed he was helping his frightened wife from the floor.
His eyes told a different story.
“No hospital,” he whispered. “You will invent another dramatic story and embarrass me.”
“I did not touch the stove.”
“That is what you should remember.”
Lorraine took another sip of wine.
“She has always had an active imagination.”
I stared at the red liquid.
Ten minutes earlier, Lorraine had offered me a glass from the same bottle. I had refused because the wine smelled faintly medicinal.
That refusal had started the argument.
Ethan asked why I examined the bottle.
I told him I was checking the label.
He accused me of searching for another reason to question his family.
Then I mentioned the nineteen million dollar transfer hidden inside Caldwell Meridian’s disaster recovery fund.
The discussion stopped being about wine.
Ethan released my wrist and pointed toward the hallway.
“You will come into the living room when you can behave normally.”
He walked away.
Lorraine stepped over my legs without looking down.
Her shoes clicked against the tile until both sets of footsteps disappeared beyond the kitchen.
I remained still.
I counted to thirty.
My frightened expression disappeared before I moved.
For six weeks, I had pretended not to notice the missing invoices, duplicated vendor numbers, and payments routed through shell companies registered to dead people.
I was a forensic accountant.
Ethan knew that when he married me.
He simply believed marriage would make me loyal before it made me curious.
I crawled toward the pantry and opened the lowest cabinet.
Behind a row of flour containers was a narrow wooden panel.
I pressed two fingers against the left corner.
The compartment opened.
A small voice recorder rested inside with a red light blinking steadily.
It had captured everything.
Ethan’s threat.
Lorraine’s statement.
My fall.
Their refusal to allow medical care.
I removed the micro memory card with my uninjured hand and slipped it inside the hidden lining of my blouse.
Then I heard a faint electronic click above me.
I looked toward the smoke detector.
A black lens rested behind one of the ventilation openings.
I had not installed a camera.
Ethan controlled the security system throughout the house, but he claimed no cameras existed inside private rooms.
I stared at the lens.
A green light flashed once.
My phone vibrated inside my pocket.
The message came from an unknown number.
YOUR RECORDER WOKE MY CAMERA.
DO NOT LEAVE THROUGH THE FRONT DOOR.
I stopped breathing.
Another message appeared.
ETHAN MOVED YOUR PASSPORT INTO HIS OFFICE.
LORRAINE CALLED THE POLICE BEFORE SHE ENTERED THE KITCHEN.
I looked toward the hallway.
They had planned the confrontation before forcing me onto the floor.
A third message arrived.
THEY WILL SAY YOU ATTACKED THEM.
SAVE THE CARD.
My fingers tightened around the phone.
Who are you?
The reply came immediately.
A photograph appeared.
The image showed Ethan standing beside a dark lake seven years earlier. He wore a black funeral suit.
Beside the photograph was a newspaper article announcing the death of his first wife, Rebecca Hale Caldwell, after a boating accident.
No body had been recovered.
The final message contained only one sentence.
MY NAME IS REBECCA, AND I NEVER DROWNED.
Ethan’s voice thundered from the living room.
“Claire, bring me another drink!”
I looked from the phone to the hidden camera.
“They heard everything,” I whispered.
May you like
The camera light flashed again.
Continue to the next part: Rebecca tells Claire why Ethan married a forensic accountant after arranging the disappearance of the first woman who examined his company records.
