Chapter 2 - THE FIRST LIE
The front doors opened with such force that they struck the paneled walls.
Detective Marcus Reed entered first.
Four uniformed officers followed him.
Two paramedics rushed past them and immediately knelt beside Emma.
“Ma’am, can you hear me?” one of them asked.
“Yes.”
“Where does it hurt?”
“My stomach and my back.”
“Has the baby moved since the fall?”
Emma closed her eyes.
She had been so overwhelmed by pain that she had not noticed.
Then she felt it.
A small movement beneath her palm.
“The baby moved,” she whispered.
The paramedic nodded.
“That’s a good sign, but we need to get you to the hospital.”
As they placed Emma on a stretcher, Detective Reed studied the room.
He was in his early forties, with calm gray eyes and the patient expression of a man who had learned that guilty people often revealed themselves when allowed to speak.
Margaret approached him.
“There has been a misunderstanding,” she said.
Reed glanced at Emma.
“A pregnant woman fell down a staircase.”
“My daughter was attacked first.”
Vivian descended the stairs slowly.
She held one hand against her neck as though recovering from a terrifying assault.
“Emma came at me,” Vivian said.
“I moved out of the way, and she fell.”
Rosa stood beside the shattered tray.
Reed looked at her bruised wrist.
“What happened to your arm?”
Rosa quickly pulled her sleeve down.
“Nothing.”
Vivian answered for her.
“She became frightened when Emma attacked me.”
Detective Reed turned back to Vivian.
“I didn’t ask you.”
The foyer became silent.
Vivian lowered her eyes.
Reed stepped toward Rosa.
“Did you see the fall?”
Rosa looked at Margaret.
Margaret’s expression carried a warning that only someone who had lived in the mansion could fully understand.
Rosa swallowed.
“I was carrying dinner dishes.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
“Yes,” Rosa said.
“I saw it.”
“What did you see?”
Before Rosa could answer, Charles Sterling moved forward.
“My attorney will be present before any employee makes a statement.”
Detective Reed faced him.
“Your attorney does not represent your employees unless they choose to hire him.”
Charles’s jaw tightened.
“This is private property.”
“And I’m investigating a possible felony.”
One of the officers returned from the security hallway.
“The recording system is offline.”
Emma turned her head from the stretcher.
“What?”
The officer continued.
“The main console has no power.”
Vivian’s shoulders relaxed almost invisibly.
Detective Reed noticed.
“When did the system go offline?” he asked.
Charles lifted his glass.
“We’ve had electrical problems during the storm.”
Reed glanced toward the chandeliers glowing above them.
“Interesting electrical problem.”
Margaret folded her arms.
“The storm damaged the cameras but left everything else working.”
Detective Reed walked toward the dark entrance of the security hallway.
He stopped beside a small table.
A silver key ring rested beside a vase.
One key was labeled SECURITY CONTROL.
Reed put on a glove and picked it up.
“Who uses this?”
Charles said nothing.
Vivian answered.
“Our head of security.”
“Where is he?”
“He left early.”
“Name?”
“Gordon Pike.”
Emma suddenly remembered something.
Gordon Pike had been the man who quietly warned her two weeks earlier never to stand beneath the east balcony after dark.
At the time, she had assumed it was an odd safety warning.
Now she wondered what he had known.
Detective Reed handed the key to an officer.
“Find Gordon Pike.”
The paramedics began moving Emma toward the door.
Daniel’s black sedan raced into the circular driveway.
He stepped out before the car had completely stopped.
His face went pale when he saw his wife on the stretcher.
“Emma!”
He ran toward her.
Emma searched his face for comfort.
For three years, she had believed Daniel was different from his family.
He had defended her in private, apologized for their cruelty, and promised that everything would change once the baby arrived.
But when he looked toward Vivian, something shifted in his expression.
Not surprise.
Recognition.
“Daniel,” Emma whispered.
He took her hand.
“What happened?”
“Your sister pushed me.”
Vivian began crying again.
“She’s lying.”
Daniel stared between them.
Then Margaret stepped beside him.
“Your wife attacked Vivian and lost her balance.”
Emma waited.
This was the moment when her husband would choose truth.
Daniel’s grip loosened around her fingers.
“Emma,” he said quietly.
“Maybe you were upset.”
The words struck harder than the fall.
She pulled her hand away.
Detective Reed watched them closely.
“Mr. Sterling, I’ll need you to remain here.”
Daniel turned toward him.
“I’m going to the hospital with my wife.”
“After I ask a few questions.”
Emma looked at Daniel one final time.
“Tell him where you were at six thirty,” she said.
Daniel froze.
Margaret’s eyes narrowed.
“What does that have to do with anything?”
Emma did not answer.
The paramedics rolled her through the doorway.
As the ambulance doors closed, Detective Reed turned toward Daniel.
“Where were you at six thirty?”
Daniel stared at the flashing lights outside.
Then he gave an answer that would become the first crack in the Sterling family’s carefully built defense.
May you like
“I was at my office.”
Detective Reed already knew that was a lie.
