Chapter 1 - THE SCREAM
The first thing Julian Hale heard when he walked into his mansion was his mother screaming.
Not crying. Not calling his name.
Screaming.
Julian stopped so fast the front door swung shut behind him.
The bouquet of rare red roses slipped from his hand and scattered across the marble floor.
“Mom?”
Another scream came from the backyard.
Julian ran.
He hit the glass doors and saw the infinity pool glowing beneath the night lights. His seventy-eight-year-old mother, Martha, was half-submerged in the water, clawing at the edge with shaking hands.
And standing over her was Bianca Laurent.
His fiancée.
“Please!” Martha gasped. “Bianca, help me!”
Bianca looked down at her.
Then she smiled.
“Still pretending to be helpless?”
Julian froze.
Martha stared at Bianca in disbelief. “What?”
“You heard me.”
Bianca stepped forward and knocked Martha’s fingers away with the heel of her shoe.
Julian’s blood turned cold.
“Bianca…”
Martha slipped lower into the water. “Please. I can’t hold on.”
“You really thought Julian would choose you over me?” Bianca whispered.
“He loves me,” Martha said. “I’m his mother.”
Bianca laughed.
“And after I marry him, this house will finally belong to me.”
Julian’s hand tightened around the door handle.
He had come home two days early to surprise Bianca. He had planned to propose again during dinner, even though they were already engaged. He had brought flowers from a shop in Manhattan she loved.
Now he watched the woman he intended to marry try to kill his mother.
But he did not move.
Not yet.
Because Bianca was talking.
“You know what’s funny, Martha?” she said. “Nobody believes an old woman who forgets things.”
Martha’s expression changed.
“What are you talking about?”
“I've already told your doctor you’ve been confused. I told the housekeeper you repeat yourself. I told Julian you’ve been paranoid.”
“You lied.”
“Of course I lied.”
Martha gasped.
Bianca crouched beside the pool.
“Once the wedding is over, everyone will think you’re declining. Then you’ll sign whatever I put in front of you.”
Martha shook her head.
“I will never sign my house away.”
Bianca’s smile vanished.
“After the wedding, you won’t be alive long enough to complain.”
Julian stepped out of the shadows.
“Say that again.”
Bianca spun around.
Her face went white.
Julian stood beneath the glass doors, his suit still carrying the dust of the road, his voice frighteningly calm.
“What did you just say about my mother?”
Bianca opened her mouth.
Nothing came out.
Martha sobbed.
“Julian…”
He ran to the pool, pulled his mother out, and wrapped his jacket around her.
Then he looked at Bianca.
“I heard everything.”
Bianca backed away.
“Julian, wait. You don’t understand.”
“I understand perfectly.”
“No. Martha attacked me. She fell into the pool.”
Julian stared at her wet footprints beside the edge.
“Then why were you smiling?”
Bianca went silent.
A phone suddenly rang.
Not Julian’s.
Bianca’s.
She looked at the screen.
One name appeared.
Victor.
Julian saw it.
Bianca rejected the call.
A second later, a message appeared.
WE HAVE A PROBLEM. JULIAN CAME HOME.
Julian read it.
His eyes lifted slowly.
“Who’s Victor?”
May you like
Bianca’s lips parted.
And for the first time, she looked truly afraid.
