Chapter 1 - The Camera Above Helen’s Head
Helen Carter was already on the marble floor when Daniel came through the double doors.
She lay on her side beneath one of the brass sconces, her champagne evening dress twisted awkwardly beneath one knee. Her wooden walking cane had been knocked several feet away.
Vanessa stood directly over her.
Helen reached toward the cane.
Vanessa snatched it first.
Then raised it high.
“Touch my money again and next time I won’t miss.”
She drove the cane downward.
It cracked against the black-and-white marble only inches from Helen’s fingers.
Helen cried out and recoiled.
Vanessa leaned closer.
The expression on her face was not panic.
It was possession.
Then the white double doors at the far end of the corridor swung open.
Daniel entered in his black tuxedo.
“Mom?!”
His mother looked toward him.
Vanessa spun around.
For one second Daniel simply stared.
His sixty-three-year-old mother on the floor.
A thin scratch along one temple.
Her cane in Vanessa’s hand.
Then he ran.
Vanessa stepped toward him.
“She fell. She’s putting on another act—”
Daniel reached her before she finished.
He caught her upper arm, turned her away from Helen and released her.
Then his anger outran judgment.
He slapped Vanessa once across the cheek.
She spun sideways and dropped onto the marble, stunned but conscious.
Daniel did not follow.
He immediately abandoned her and crouched beside his mother.
“Mom.”
Helen’s hand trembled as she reached for him.
“Are you hurt?”
“My head didn’t hit hard.”
Daniel saw the scratch.
His jaw tightened again.
Then Helen looked above him.
Not at Vanessa.
Not toward the stairs.
Up.
“Daniel…”
“What?”
“Look.”
She pointed weakly.
Daniel followed her finger.
Mounted high on the ivory-paneled wall was a small home-security camera.
He had forgotten it was there.
The camera covered the entire corridor.
The exact place where Helen had fallen.
The exact place Vanessa had stood over her.
Daniel slowly looked back at his wife.
Vanessa had followed his gaze.
The anger disappeared from her face.
Her eyes widened.
Her skin drained pale.
Daniel said nothing.
He did not need to.
Vanessa knew what the camera might have recorded.
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And apparently, she was afraid of something much larger than the slap Daniel had just given her.
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