Chapter 1 - The Shadow in the HallwayThe golden hour light poured through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Sterling estate, painting the modern hardwood floors in shades of honey and amber. To anyone passing by outside, it was the picture of suburban royalty. Inside, it was a tomb.
Clara stood in the quiet archway of the corridor, her hand resting instinctively over the heavy, rhythmic kick of her eight-month pregnancy. Her feet were bare against the cold floorboards. She had walked down the hall to ask Julian if he wanted mint in his iced tea.
Instead, her breath hitched in her throat.
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Through the soft shadow of the kitchen doorway, her husband—the man whose ring sat heavy on her left finger, the man who kissed her forehead every morning—had his hands wrapped tightly around the waist of another woman. Victoria Vance. Clara’s close friend and corporate associate. Victoria’s fingers were threaded through Julian’s dark hair, her head tilted back in a breathless, intimate kiss.
Clara’s heart slammed against her ribs like a trapped bird. The world shrank into a silent, suffocating vacuum.
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