Chapter 1 - The Ghost on the Stairs
The wooden floorboards of the old house creaked again, louder this time.
Adrian stood frozen at the bottom of the staircase, his steel-gray eyes fixed on the shadows above.
A woman slowly descended the steps, her hand sliding along the oak banister.
She was wearing a simple white dress, her chestnut hair falling effortlessly over her shoulders.
Adrian’s breath hitched violently in his throat.
It was Claire.
The exact same curve of her jaw, the same pale skin, the same slight hesitation in her step.
Seven years of grief crashed into him like a physical blow.
He had watched the earth cover her coffin, but now she was standing merely ten feet away.
She stopped abruptly when she saw the massive, tattooed man standing in her hallway.
Her hazel eyes widened in sheer terror, a reaction Adrian had never seen from his wife.
She instinctively pulled her dress tighter around her collarbone.
She did not say his name.
She did not run into his arms.
Instead, she screamed.
“David!”
Her voice was identical to the one in his memories, yet it carried no recognition whatsoever.
Adrian took a desperate step forward, his hands trembling.
“Claire, it’s me,” he whispered, his voice cracking for the first time in a decade.
Emma ran past Adrian and hid behind the woman’s legs, pointing a tiny finger at him.
“Mommy, the grumpy mister wouldn’t listen to me about the door.”
The woman scooped Emma into her arms, her eyes darting toward the front entrance.
Heavy, rapid footsteps echoed from the back of the house.
A man burst into the hallway holding a black handgun leveled directly at Adrian’s chest.
Adrian’s blood ran cold.
The man holding the gun was Detective David Vance, the lead investigator who had closed the case on Claire’s fatal car crash seven years ago.
David cocked the hammer of the gun and stepped in front of Claire.
“Get out of my house, Vale, before I blow a hole through your heart,” David growled.
Adrian stared at the detective, then back at the woman he loved.
May you like
She buried her face into David’s shoulder, trembling with fear.
David kissed the top of her head and whispered, “It’s okay, my beautiful wife, I’ve got you.”
