Chapter 1 - THE CHILD WHO STOPPED THE PROPOSAL
The scream came from a four-year-old girl.
“DON’T MARRY HER!”
Adrian Westwood froze beneath the crystal chandelier with a diamond ring box open in his hand.
Three hundred guests stopped breathing.
Madison Cole stood across from him in a midnight-blue gown, one manicured hand wrapped around a champagne glass.
Six weeks from now, she was supposed to become his wife.
The little girl pointed at her.
“Check your dead wife’s closet, sir.”
A murmur rolled through the ballroom.
Adrian slowly lowered the ring box.
“What did you say?”
Before the child could answer, a woman in a black housekeeping uniform rushed through the crowd.
“Emma!”
Rachel Bennett grabbed her daughter.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Westwood. She slipped away from downstairs.”
Adrian didn’t move.
“What closet?”
Emma hugged her stuffed rabbit.
“Mrs. Westwood’s.”
Madison gave a nervous laugh.
“She’s four, Adrian.”
Emma stared at her.
“You go there at night.”
The laugh died.
Rachel went pale.
“Emma, stop.”
“No,” Adrian said.
His voice was quiet enough to frighten everyone.
“Let her talk.”
Emma looked up at him.
“The blue lady takes off her shoes because they go click-click.”
Adrian glanced at Madison’s expensive heels.
“Have you been in Claire’s dressing room?”
Madison’s face hardened.
“Of course not.”
Emma frowned.
“That’s a lie.”
Adrian’s mother, Margaret, stepped forward.
“This has gone far enough.”
But Emma kept talking.
“She moves the dresses.”
Adrian felt something cold move through his chest.
“And then?”
“There’s a little wooden door.”
Natalie Westwood, Claire’s younger sister, covered her mouth.
Only three people were supposed to know about that hidden cedar panel.
Adrian.
Claire.
And Madison.
Emma tugged Adrian’s sleeve.
“There’s a red box inside.”
His stomach dropped.
Claire’s red Cartier case.
The one the police never found after her fatal car crash.
The case that had contained her wedding ring.
Adrian turned toward Madison.
She looked terrified.
“Everybody stays here,” he said.
Madison grabbed his wrist.
“Adrian, don’t do this.”
He pulled free.
Then Emma whispered one more sentence.
“The blue lady said Mrs. Westwood should’ve kept her mouth shut.”
Nobody moved.
Adrian stared at Madison.
“What does that mean?”
“I don’t know!”
Her voice cracked.
It was the first time Adrian had ever heard Madison Cole lose control.
He turned to Rachel.
“Bring Emma.”
Then to Natalie.
“You too.”
Margaret blocked the staircase.
“You are not destroying this family over the imagination of a servant’s child.”
Adrian’s eyes sharpened.
“If Emma imagined the hidden door, I’ll apologize to everyone.”
He looked at Madison.
“But if she didn’t, someone has been lying to me for three years.”
He started upstairs.
Behind him, Madison reached for her phone.
Rachel saw her type four words.
HE’S GOING UPSTAIRS NOW.
Then, from the second floor of the mansion, came the violent sound of a door slamming shut.
Adrian looked up.
May you like
Someone was already waiting for them.
And whoever it was had just realized they were coming.
