Chapter 1 - The Bloody Staircase
My fingers shook so violently that tearing open the second envelope felt like trying to pick up shards of shattered glass. Inside was not another handwritten note. It was a thumb drive, cold and metallic, along with a printout of an emergency dispatch log timestamped at 11:42 p.m. on the very night I walked out on Meline.
Attached to the log was a still frame from our penthouse security system. The image was grainy, yet every single detail struck my chest like a sledgehammer. Meline was lying curled at the foot of our spiraling marble staircase, her cream-colored maternity dress stained in deep, terrifying crimson. Standing at the top of the landing, half-cloaked in the shadows of the mezzanine, was a woman wearing a tailored camel-hair coat and carrying a distinct croc-embossed Hermès Kelly bag.
Elena Courtland.
My breath stopped entirely. My vision tunneled into dark static.
"Mr. Vance?" the nurse asked gently, placing a hand on my trembling shoulder. "Do you need a physician?"
"No," I choked out, stumbling toward the doorway. "No. I need... I need to see what this is."
I ran out of the hospital suite, ignoring the stares of doctors and orderlies as I sprinted to the underground parking garage where my private car was idling. My chauffeur, Thomas, straightened up immediately, his eyes widening when he saw my pale, disheveled face and the tiny blue knitted hat clutched in my white-knuckled fist.
"Drive to the office," I commanded, my voice raw and broken. "Now, Thomas. Don't stop for red lights."
Inside the privacy of the back seat, I inserted the thumb drive into my laptop. A single video file populated the screen. I clicked play.
The timestamp read 11:28 p.m. on the night I abandoned my home. The footage began with Meline pacing the penthouse living room, her cell phone pressed to her ear. She was crying, repeatedly redialing my number—the very calls I had silenced while sitting in a private suite at the Plaza Hotel, drinking champagne with Elena.
Then the penthouse front door clicked open. Meline spun around, relief washing over her tear-streaked face. "Damen?" she called out.
It wasn't me. It was Elena. She held a duplicate key fob—one that only my executive assistant, Bernard, had access to duplicate.
The audio was clear. Elena’s voice was venomous, stripped of the sweet, fragile tone she used whenever she rested her head on my chest. "He's never coming back to you, Meline," Elena sneered, strolling across our Persian rug. "He's with me. He was with me an hour ago, he's with me right now, and he'll be with me when your pathetic company shares are transferred to my father's consortium."
"Get out of my home," Meline said, backing toward the staircase, her hands shielding her unborn child. "Damen wouldn't—"
"Damen doesn't love you," Elena interrupted, climbing the first two steps to cut off Meline’s retreat. "He thinks you're weak. He thinks you're an anchor dragging down his ambition. Do you really think he wants a sick child with a woman he can barely stand to look at?"
"Leave!" Meline screamed.
Elena reached out. On camera, it was deliberate. A vicious, calculating shove straight into Meline’s chest.
Meline lost her footing. She tumbled down seven marble steps, her head striking the brass banister before she landed in an unnatural heap on the landing floor. The sickening thud resonated through my laptop speakers, vibrating directly into my soul.
Elena didn't call 911. She stood at the top of the landing, watched Meline groan and clutch her bleeding abdomen, checked her watch, adjusted her coat, and calmly walked out the front door.
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I dropped my head into my hands and let out a sound that wasn't human. A guttural roar of agony and self-hatred tore through my throat. My wife had been pushed down our stairs by the woman I had spent six days pampering, while my son had bled to death in the womb because his father was too arrogant, too selfish, and too blind to see the monster he had invited into his bed.
"Thomas!" I shouted, slamming my palm against the partition glass. "Turn around! We're going to Elena's penthouse right now!"
