Chapter 1 - Say That Again
The first thing Julian Hale heard when he walked into his mansion was his mother screaming.
Not crying.
Not calling his name.
Screaming.
A sound filled with pure terror.
Julian froze behind the glass doors leading to the backyard.
The bouquet of rare red roses slipped from his hand.
One by one, the flowers fell onto the marble floor.
Because in front of him, inside the glowing infinity pool, was his 78-year-old mother, Martha.
Her fragile hands desperately grabbed at the edge.
Her purple nightgown dragged her down like an anchor.
“Please…” Martha coughed, barely keeping her face above the water.
“Someone… help me…”
Standing above her was Bianca Laurent.
Julian’s fiancée.
The woman he had planned to surprise that night.
The woman he thought would become part of his family.
But the woman standing beside the pool was not the woman he knew.
Bianca looked down at Martha with a cold smile.
“Still pretending to be helpless?”
Julian’s heart stopped.
“What did you say?” Martha gasped.
Bianca leaned closer.
“You heard me.”
Martha shook her head.
“Bianca… please… pull me out.”
Instead, Bianca stepped closer and pushed Martha’s hand away with her heel.
“You really thought Julian would choose you over me?”
Martha’s eyes filled with fear.
“He loves me. I’m his mother.”
Bianca laughed softly.
“And after I marry him, this house will finally belong to me.”
Julian felt his hands tighten into fists.
The woman he planned to marry was threatening his mother.
His own mother.
But he stayed hidden.
Because he needed to hear the truth.
Bianca looked around to make sure no one was watching.
Then she whispered.
“You know what’s funny, Martha?”
“Nobody will believe an old woman who forgets things.”
Martha’s face changed.
“What are you talking about?”
Bianca smiled.
“I already started telling people your memory is getting worse.”
Julian’s blood ran cold.
Because suddenly he understood.
This wasn’t an accident.
This was a plan.
A plan that had started long before tonight.
And then Bianca said the one sentence that changed everything.
“After the wedding, you won’t be alive long enough to complain.”
Julian stepped away from the shadows.
His voice was calm.
But deadly.
“Say that again.”
Bianca turned around.
Her smile disappeared.
Because Julian Hale had heard everything.
Bianca recovered faster than Julian expected.
Her face changed from cruelty to terror in a single breath.
“Julian, thank God.”
“She fell.”
“She’s confused.”
Martha tried to speak, but swallowed water.
Julian ran past Bianca and pulled his mother from the pool.
Martha collapsed against him, shaking violently.
Bianca reached for his shoulder.
He moved away.
“Don’t touch either of us.”
Mateo Ruiz, Julian’s head of security, rushed outside.
Julian ordered an ambulance.
Then he pointed at every camera around the terrace.
“Lock the security system.”
Bianca’s eyes flickered.
Only once.
Julian noticed.
At the hospital, Martha was treated for hypothermia and water inhalation.
The doctor also found something unexpected.
A sedative in her blood.
Martha had not been prescribed one.
Julian returned home before dawn.
The pool camera footage was gone.
Not corrupted.
Deleted.
Mateo looked sick.
“Only three people have administrator access.”
“Me, you, and—”
Julian finished for him.
“Bianca.”
Then Mateo showed him the access log.
The deletion had been authorized from Julian’s own phone.
A phone that had been locked inside his office all evening.
Someone had cloned his credentials.
May you like
And whoever did it had started preparing long before the pool.
