Chapter 1 - THE WOMAN HE THOUGHT HAD LEFT HIM
The first thing Jake noticed when he stepped inside the mansion was the silence.
Not the peaceful kind.
The wrong kind.
The kind that made the back of his neck tighten.
He had just returned from six months overseas.
Six months of long missions, sleepless nights, and brief, unanswered messages.
He had expected Emily to run into his arms.
Instead, he found his younger brother Tyler standing in the middle of the living room wearing Jake's limited-edition watch.
Jake stopped.
His eyes moved slowly across the room.
The open safe.
The scattered bank documents.
The jewelry boxes.
The property deed spread across the floor.
And Emily…
She was on her knees near the staircase.
Her face was pale.
Her hair was tangled.
There were bruises on her arms.
For several seconds, Jake couldn't breathe.
Then Diane stepped forward.
His stepmother.
The woman who had raised him after his father died.
She held a jewelry box in one hand and legal papers in the other.
“Jake,” she said calmly.
Tyler's smile disappeared.
Emily looked up.
Her eyes widened.
“Jake…”
Her voice cracked.
Jake stared at her.
For six months, he had believed she had abandoned him.
He had sent messages.
Called her.
Emailed her.
Every message had been ignored.
Every call had gone unanswered.
Then Diane had told him the truth.
At least, what he thought was the truth.
“She met someone else,” Diane had said.
“Emily stopped loving you.”
Tyler had even shown him screenshots of messages supposedly written by Emily.
I’m done waiting for him.
I have someone else now.
Tell Jake not to come back.
Jake had believed them.
He had spent six months convincing himself that the woman he loved had moved on.
But now, looking at Emily's bruised face, something inside him began to crack.
“Why…” His voice was dangerously quiet. “Why are you on the floor?”
Emily tried to stand.
Her knees gave out.
Jake moved toward her.
But Diane stepped between them.
“Don't make this dramatic.”
Jake looked at his mother.
Then at Tyler's wrist.
His watch.
The watch Emily had given him before he left.
His expression changed.
“Take it off.”
Tyler laughed nervously.
“What?”
Jake took one step forward.
“I said… take off my watch.”
Tyler slowly removed it.
Jake's eyes moved back to Emily.
“Who did this to you?”
Emily's lips trembled.
She looked at Diane.
Then Tyler.
Neither of them spoke.
And suddenly Jake realized something terrifying.
May you like
Maybe Emily hadn't disappeared from his life.
Maybe someone had made sure he could never find her.
