Eastbound
My husband, Miles Connell, turned his study into a gaming room, kept it locked for three years, and refused to let anyone in. Yet whenever I brought friends home, he eagerly ushered them inside.
After leaving the room, my best friend, Zoe Schmich, blocked me.
“From now on, we’re no longer best friends.”
My business partner, Erin Zappone, slapped me across the face when she emerged.
“Our partnership is over!”
I asked Miles what exactly he had said to them in the gaming room, but he merely waved me off and insisted he had nothing to do with it.
Dad refused to believe any of it, so he picked the lock and went inside while Miles was away on a business trip. The moment he came out, he grabbed a mop handle and swung it at me.
“You monster!”
The incident soon went viral online. Some people claimed something was lurking in our gaming room and bringing me bad luck, while others offered Miles five thousand dollars to reveal the truth.
Desperate to clear my name, I asked my childhood friend, a prosecutor, to check out the room. But when she emerged, she refused to meet my eyes and slowly reached for the handcuffs at her belt.
“Nora Lillard, you’ve been suspected of murder. Come with me.”