MasukMary's POV:"I'm sorry, but Mr. Vane is in meetings all morning. If you'd like to leave your name and number, I can have someone—""Mary," I said. "My name is Mary."She typed something into her computer. Scrolled. Typed again. Her smile never changed."I'm not seeing a Mary on his schedule. Are you with a vendor? A client?"I looked past her, down the hallway lined with glass-walled offices. I could see people moving, talking, working. None of them looked up. None of them noticed me.None of them knew who I was.And why would they? Alistair had never told them. He had never mentioned me at company parties, never brought me to holiday events, never once acknowledged that he had a wife and a daughter waiting for him at home.His friends—the ones he played poker with, the ones he went to bachelor parties with, the ones who had known about Vesper for years—had never heard my name.My friends, the ones I had convinced to invest in his company, had become his friends over time. I saw them
Mary's POV:Elowen's kindergarten was a fifteen-minute drive from the house.I held her hand the whole way there. She didn't pull away, didn't squirm, didn't complain that I was holding too tight. She just walked beside me with her purple backpack slung over her shoulder, her hair finally brushed, her dress replaced with jeans and a t-shirt that said I Heart Unicorns in glittery letters.At the classroom door, she stopped and turned to look at me."Mommy?""Yes, baby?""Are you going to talk to Dad today?"I crouched down so we were eye to eye. "Yes. I am.""Are you going to be sad again after?"The question was so simple, and so complicated, and so perfectly her that I almost started crying right there in the hallway."No," I said. "I'm not going to be sad. I promise."She studied my face for a long moment. Then she nodded, as if satisfied, and threw her arms around my neck."I love you, Mommy.""I love you too, baby. Have a good day."She disappeared into the classroom, and I stood
Mary's POV:Elowen's small hand stayed on my cheek for a long time after I asked the question.The kitchen was quiet around us—the refrigerator humming, the clock ticking, the morning light shifting across the floor in slow golden arcs. I could hear my own breathing, shallow and uneven, and I could hear hers, slower, steadier, like she was the one holding me together instead of the other way around."I don't want to never see Dad," she said finally.The words landed softly, but they landed hard. I felt them in my chest, in my throat, in the places where I had been storing all the hope I hadn't let myself feel for years."Of course not, baby," I said. "You'll always see him. Nothing will ever change that."She pulled back slightly, just enough to look at my face. Her eyes, those dark, serious eyes that saw too much and asked too many questions, searched mine for something I couldn't name."But I'd even more not want to see you sad."The words hit me like a physical blow.I had spent th
MARY'S POV:"You're taking his car," I said. It wasn't a question."He said I could." She slipped the keys into the pocket of her robe and glanced back at me over her shoulder. "I have things to do. Places to be. Don't wait up."The door opened. The morning light spilled in, golden and warm, illuminating every crack in the marble floor, every piece of broken glass, every photograph scattered at my feet.And then she was gone.The door closed behind her. The engine of Alistair's car rumbled to life in the driveway. I stood there in the silence, still holding the broken frame, still wearing my flour-dusted apron, still trying to understand how my life had become this.I walked to the kitchen. My phone was on the counter, exactly where I had left it. The screen was dark. No messages. No missed calls. Nothing from Alistair.I picked it up and dialed his number.It rang once. Twice. Three times."Mary?" His voice was distracted, distant, like he was already thinking about something else. "
MARY'S POV:The man in the leather jacket looked at the hidden photograph in my hands, then at my face, then back at the photograph.His expression shifted.The lazy amusement drained away first, replaced by something that looked almost like confusion. Then the confusion hardened into something else—something that might have been concern, or guilt, or the uncomfortable realization that he had miscalculated."I should go," he said.And then he left.Just like that. No apology. No explanation. No offer to help or stay or even close the door behind him. He turned on his heel and walked out of my house, his expensive shoes clicking against the marble floor until the sound faded into nothing.The front door swung shut with a soft click.I stood there in the middle of the foyer, surrounded by broken glass and scattered photographs, and I didn't even have time to care. Because the second he was gone—the second the silence settled back into the house like dust settling on old furniture—I hear
MARY'S POV:I felt something crack a bit inside my chest."Cancel it," I said."Excuse me?""The party. Whatever he's planning. Cancel it."He stared at me for a long moment. Then his mouth curved into a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "I don't take orders from delusional women who pretend to be married to my friends.""I'm not pretending.""Then where is he?" He spread his arms wide, gesturing at the empty foyer, the silent staircase, the closed doors. "If you're his wife, where's your husband? Why isn't he here? Why hasn't he mentioned you? Not once. In all the years i have known him. Not a single word."I opened my mouth and then closed it.Because he was right. Alistair wasn't here. I didn't know where he was—upstairs, probably, or already gone, slipped out the back while I was standing in the kitchen pretending to cook for his mistress. And my phone was still in the kitchen, untouched since last night, and I hadn't seen a single message or missed call from the man who was suppo
ELIJAH’S POV:"I appreciate that," I said."Unless she asks," she added."Obviously," Andrew said."Right," I said. "Obviously."Hannah came home at eight thirty that night, which was actually closer to the time she said she would be home than usual and I considered that a small victory. She came t
HANNAH’S POV:"Just wait and see," he said, and he was smiling now and not even attempting to hide it.I looked at him for a moment. This man. Honestly.We drove to the east side of the city, past the areas I usually went to, and pulled up in front of a building that looked like it used to be an ol
ELIJAH'S POV:"A fake name with a decent fake document. Not amateur work. Someone who knew what they were doing or had access to someone who did.""And the car itself. Where did it go after?""Returned to the airport branch," Bates said. "Two days after the fire. Which tells us whoever it was eithe
HANNAH’S POV: "Where did you get this?" Elijah asked, his voice sharpening. "CCTV from the camera above the pharmacy directly across from the building," Lucas said. "I have a contact at the security management company that handles it. I asked him to pull the footage from the night of the fire and







