Chapter 1 - THE HOUSE I LET THEM ENTER
The ride home lasted twenty-six minutes.
I remembered because twenty-six had become my number.
Twenty-six days since the envelope.
Twenty-six days of pretending.
Twenty-six days of copying statements while Nathan showered.
Twenty-six days of smiling when he kissed my forehead and told me I was overthinking everything.
Now he drove our SUV with Eli behind him and Lauren in the passenger seat.
I sat in the second row beside Emma.
Caleb was squeezed into the middle.
Lauren had taken my seat.
Nobody had asked.
Nathan kept checking me through the mirror.
“You comfortable?”
“No.”
He flinched.
Then I added.
“But I’ll survive.”
Lauren looked out the window.
Good.
Uncertainty was already working.
When we reached the house, she hesitated at the front door.
My mother’s bracelet was still on her wrist.
I watched her touch it.
Possessively.
Nathan unlocked the door.
“Rachel, take it slow.”
I almost laughed.
My attorney, Sarah Delgado, had told me one thing repeatedly.
Do not confront.
Document.
Preserve.
Let people reveal themselves.
So I entered my own house like a guest.
Lauren followed.
Eli ran toward the living room.
He knew where the toys were.
That was my first surprise.
He did not explore.
He went directly to a low cabinet beside the fireplace and pulled out a basket of wooden trains.
Caleb stared.
“How did he know those were there?”
Nathan answered too quickly.
“Lucky guess.”
I looked at Lauren.
She smiled.
Not well.
The second surprise was upstairs.
Lauren knew where the guest towels were.
She opened the linen closet without asking.
Then she caught me watching.
“Nathan mentioned it.”
Of course he had.
By seven that night, Emma was asleep in the bassinet beside me.
Caleb was eating pasta.
Eli was sitting in Nathan’s usual chair.
Lauren poured wine from a bottle I had been saving since my mother’s funeral.
Nathan did not stop her.
Then his phone buzzed.
He looked down.
His face changed.
He walked into the study.
Lauren followed two minutes later.
I waited.
Then turned on the baby monitor app Sarah’s investigator had installed while I was in the hospital.
Not an illegal bug.
The monitor was mine.
The camera was inside my nursery.
The microphone picked up the hallway outside.
Nathan’s voice came faintly through my phone.
“You should not have worn the bracelet.”
Lauren whispered.
“You said she’d be too exhausted to notice.”
“I underestimated her.”
“What does she know?”
A pause.
Then Nathan said.
“Nothing important.”
Lauren answered.
“She smiled.”
Nathan went quiet.
Then his voice became cold.
“Tomorrow morning, Diane comes over.”
“And?”
“We start the next part.”
I stopped breathing.
Lauren whispered.
“Are you sure?”
Nathan answered.
“By the end of the week, Rachel will look incapable of caring for three children.”
Three.
Not two.
He was already counting Eli as part of my household.
Then Lauren asked the question that made my stitches hurt less than the fear inside my chest.
“And after she signs the power of attorney?”
May you like
Nathan replied.
“She won’t control anything anymore.”
