Chapter 1 - The Empty Crib
I came home expecting another ordinary morning.
Instead, I found silence.
The kind of silence that makes your skin go cold before your mind understands why.
I pushed open the nursery door and froze.
The crib was empty.
No blanket. No stuffed animals. No folded baby clothes in the drawers. No soft sounds from my three-month-old son, Ethan.
Nothing.
My hand hit the doorframe so hard it cracked the wood, and a streak of blood smeared across the white paint. I barely felt it.
“Where is my son?”
My own voice echoed back at me through the house, but no one answered.
Then I smelled the perfume still clinging to my jacket—the perfume of the woman I had spent the night with.
And suddenly the silence didn’t feel accidental.
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It felt deliberate.
Cliffhanger: Richard realizes the nursery wasn’t left empty in panic… it was emptied with intention.
