Chapter 1 - The Woman Inside the Pendant

The bridal suite should have been the safest room in the mansion.

Warm golden light filled the elegant space. Bianca’s cosmetics were arranged neatly across the vanity. Her long pearl-edged veil fell perfectly down the back of her ivory satin wedding dress. A flower basket sat near the chair. The bouquet rested nearby.

And twenty-month-old Lila was screaming.

I opened the door in time to see Bianca gripping my daughter by her strawberry-blonde curls.

Before I could reach them, she slammed Lila’s head against the vanity mirror.

CRASH.

The glass fractured across its surface and pieces dropped onto the vanity and floor.

Lila was left with only a slight red mark on her forehead, but she screamed in terror.

Bianca released her hair.

Then slapped her across the cheek.

“Tell me where you hid it!”

The door hit the wall as I rushed in.

Lila saw me.

“Daddy!”

She stumbled toward me in her powder-blue flower-girl dress.

I pulled her behind my body immediately.

“What the hell are you doing?”

Bianca clutched the wedding bouquet tightly against her chest.

Her perfect wedding makeup couldn’t hide the rage in her face.

“She ruined everything!”

I looked at Lila’s flushed cheek.

Then at Bianca.

Her veil was still immaculate.

Her dress untouched.

My daughter was crying because my bride had just attacked her over something inside this room.

I took the bouquet from Bianca and hurled it into her face and chest.

Flowers exploded across the floor.

Bianca staggered backward in shock.

I stayed between her and Lila.

Then I felt a tiny hand tugging at my ivory-white shirt.

Lila opened her flower basket.

From beneath the petals, she pulled out a small pendant.

She placed it into my hand.

“Daddy… I found this in Bianca’s room.”

I opened it.

Inside was the miniature portrait of a woman.

My entire body went still.

Behind me, Bianca stopped breathing normally.

I looked down at the face inside the pendant.

Then slowly lifted my eyes toward the woman I had been minutes away from marrying.

Bianca had told me she had never known Lila’s mother.

The woman inside that pendant was Natalie Mercer.

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My late wife.

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