Chapter 1 - The Early Return
The flight from Singapore had been a grueling eighteen hours, but the exhaustion was entirely masked by a quiet, buzzing anticipation. I had finished the corporate merger negotiations two days ahead of schedule. All I wanted was to see my wife, Elena. She was eight months pregnant with our first child, a boy, and the weeks apart had felt like a hollow ache in my chest.
I didn’t tell anyone I was coming home early. I wanted to surprise her. I imagined walking into the kitchen, the smell of fresh coffee in the air, and seeing her smile.
The taxi dropped me off at the edge of our sprawling estate just as the sun began to peek over the horizon, casting a pale, golden light across the manicured lawns. The house, a massive structure of glass and white marble, had belonged to my late father. It was supposed to be our sanctuary.
I unlocked the heavy glass front doors as quietly as possible, leaving my luggage on the porch. I stepped into the grand marble foyer, expecting the silent peace of early morning.
Instead, a chilling sound echoed off the high ceilings. It was a soft, desperate sobbing.
My heart hammered against my ribs. I dropped my briefcase, the leather slapping loudly against the floor, but the sound was drowned out by a voice that made my blood run cold.
"Scrub harder," my mother’s voice commanded. "This house belongs to my children, not you."
May you like
I froze, stepping out from the shadow of the entryway. What I saw in the center of our foyer shattered my reality into jagged, unrecognizable pieces.
The first thing I saw was my wife’s swollen hands submerged in a silver basin of dirty water. The second was my mother’s bare foot resting heavily on Elena’s shoulder, pressing down on my pregnant wife as if she were a piece of antique furniture.
