Chapter 1 - THE NIGHT I CAME HOME
The next sound I heard was my mother's voice.
“Thane?”
It wasn't the voice of a woman caught committing a crime.
It was the voice of a mother pretending she had been interrupted while doing something completely innocent.
I stepped through the doorway.
Kareen froze.
Her fingers were still wrapped around Alora's hair.
For one impossible second, nobody moved.
Rain hammered against the windows behind me.
Thunder rolled over the estate.
And my mother stared at me as if she were looking at a ghost.
“Thane,” she whispered.
I looked at Alora.
Her cheek was already swelling.
Blood ran from her lip.
Her nightgown was torn at the shoulder.
Her hands were protecting her stomach.
Then I looked at my mother.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Kareen released Alora so suddenly that my wife fell sideways onto the floor.
I lunged forward.
“Alora!”
I dropped beside her.
She grabbed my shirt with both hands.
“Thane…”
Her voice broke.
“I thought you were in Tokyo.”
“So did everyone else.”
I pulled her against my chest.
She was shaking so badly I could feel every tremor.
“Are you hurt?”
“My stomach…”
My blood went cold.
“Your stomach?”
“I don't know.”
I immediately reached for my phone.
“I'm calling an ambulance.”
“No.”
Alora grabbed my wrist.
“Don't leave me.”
“I won't.”
I looked toward Kareen.
My mother had taken several steps backward.
Her face had changed.
The cruelty was gone.
Now she looked frightened.
“Thane, listen to me.”
I stood slowly.
“What happened?”
“She attacked me,” Alora whispered.
Kareen's mouth dropped open.
“That isn't true.”
“You were hitting her.”
“I was trying to get answers!”
“What answers?”
Kareen said nothing.
I stared at her.
“Why were you asking my pregnant wife about the safe?”
Her silence answered more than words could.
Then I heard something.
A faint metallic scrape.
I turned.
The bedroom closet door was open.
Our wall safe sat behind the false panel.
Except the panel wasn't closed.
Someone had ripped it away.
And standing in front of the safe was my sister, Vanessa.
She was holding a small black device in one hand.
My stomach dropped.
“Vanessa?”
She went pale.
“Thane…”
“What are you doing here?”
She looked at Kareen.
Then at me.
Then at the safe.
“I can explain.”
“No.”
My voice came out colder than I expected.
“You have thirty seconds.”
Vanessa swallowed.
“Mom told me the combination.”
Kareen immediately shouted, “Vanessa!”
I stared at my mother.
“You told her?”
“She needed to get something.”
“What?”
Neither answered.
I stepped toward the safe.
“What's inside?”
Vanessa's eyes filled with tears.
“Thane, you don't understand.”
“Then help me understand.”
She shook her head.
“You shouldn't have come home.”
That sentence changed everything.
I slowly turned toward her.
“What did you just say?”
Vanessa covered her mouth.
Kareen looked furious.
“You idiot.”
I heard it clearly.
My mother's words.
Not you're scared.
Not you're confused.
You're an idiot.
As though Vanessa had ruined something.
Something planned.
Something they had expected to finish before I returned.
I took out my phone.
“I want both of you to step away from my wife.”
Kareen raised her hands.
“Thane, you're misunderstanding this.”
“I watched you beat her.”
“She attacked me first.”
Alora stared at her.
“I was asleep.”
Kareen's expression hardened.
“She has been manipulating you since the day you married her.”
I felt something inside me snap.
“You've always hated her.”
“Because I know what she's doing!”
“What is she doing?”
Kareen pointed at Alora's stomach.
“She is carrying a child that will destroy this family.”
Silence.
Alora began crying.
I stared at my mother.
“What did you say?”
Kareen's face twisted.
“You think everything is an accident?”
Vanessa whispered, “Mom, stop.”
“No!”
Kareen pointed at me.
“You have no idea what she married you for.”
I pulled my phone from my pocket.
“I don't care what story you've invented.”
I dialed 911.
Kareen's face changed.
“Thane, don't.”
I put the phone on speaker.
“My mother assaulted my pregnant wife,” I said. “We're at a private estate in Montecito. She has visible injuries. My sister is also here attempting to break into our safe.”
Vanessa started crying.
“Thane, please.”
“Stay where you are,” the dispatcher instructed.
I looked at Alora.
“I'm right here.”
She nodded weakly.
But then her eyes shifted toward the safe.
“Thane…”
“What?”
“There's something you need to know.”
“What?”
She swallowed.
“Kareen wasn't looking for money.”
I looked at the safe.
“Then what was she looking for?”
Alora's lips trembled.
“Your father's file.”
My heart stopped.
My father had been dead for eleven years.
And I had never told Alora about the file.
Because I had never told anyone.
I slowly turned toward Kareen.
“What file?”
May you like
My mother's face went completely white.
And for the first time that night, she looked genuinely terrified.
