Chapter 1 - The Scream Behind the Marble DoorThe Vance estate stood beneath the brutal white sunlight of a late summer morning, its towering windows reflecting the manicured gardens and the endless blue sky.
Inside, however, something was terribly wrong.
Seven-year-old Lily Vance screamed as she struggled against the marble vanity.
Victoria, her stepmother, had one hand locked around the child's wrist and the other gripping a red-hot flat iron.
“Stop moving!”
“Daddy!” Lily cried. “Daddy, please!”
The smell of burning hair filled the luxurious bathroom.
Lily's small body trembled violently. Tears streamed down her freckled cheeks as Victoria dragged the scorching iron dangerously close to her scalp.
“This will teach you to lie,” Victoria hissed.
Then came the sound of footsteps.
Fast.
Heavy.
Desperate.
Sarah, the estate housekeeper, burst through the bathroom door.
“Let her go!”
Victoria spun around.
“How dare you!”
Sarah lunged forward and pulled Lily away.
The flat iron slipped from Victoria's hand.
For one frozen second, nobody moved.
Then Mark Vance appeared in the doorway.
His face changed the instant he saw his daughter crying.
“What happened?”
Lily ran into his arms.
“Daddy!”
Mark looked at the red marks on her wrist.
Then at Victoria.
And something inside him broke.
Victoria opened her mouth.
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But Mark was already reaching for the tablet in his hand.
Because this time, he had proof.
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