Chapter 1 - The Hidden Message
The room was completely silent except for the sound of Evelyn breathing heavily on the screen.
Nathaniel stared at the monitor with wide and terrified eyes.
His knuckles were completely white from gripping the edge of the grand piano.
On the recording, Evelyn took a step closer to the camera lens.
Her beautiful face was pale and stained with fresh tears.
She looked directly into the camera as if she could see us standing there in the future.
"Nathaniel, if you are watching this, it means I am already dead," she whispered.
My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird.
I instinctively reached out and pulled Sophia and Eli closely against my legs.
"The police will probably tell you it was a tragic car accident on the coastal highway," Evelyn continued.
She wiped a tear from her cheek with a trembling hand.
"But you need to know that someone tampered with the brakes on my car this morning."
Nathaniel let out a broken gasp that sounded like a dying man.
Evelyn glanced nervously over her shoulder toward the dark hallway on the video.
"I tried to go to the police, but he has people everywhere in the department," she said.
"I hid the real evidence in the nursery, inside the lining of Eli's blue bassinet."
She took another shaky breath and stepped back from the camera.
"You have to protect our son, Nathaniel, because the man who did this to me will eventually come for him."
Suddenly, the video feed flickered and the image distorted with static.
When the picture cleared a second later, Evelyn was no longer looking at the lens.
She was staring off to the side with an expression of absolute horror.
A dark shadow slowly stretched across the polished floor of the ballroom on the screen.
Evelyn had not set the camera on a tripod to record this message.
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Someone else was standing in the room holding the camera.
Before Evelyn could scream, a man's hand reached out from behind the lens and covered her mouth.
