Chapter 1 - THE WOMAN AT THE CHRISTMAS PARTY
Thirty-two weeks pregnant, I watched my husband walk into his family’s Christmas party with another woman wearing the diamond necklace he had secretly bought during a hotel stay he lied about. Sixty guests were watching when I finally told him, “Since you brought someone, I brought someone too,” but Matthias had no idea his affair was no longer the most frightening secret I had uncovered.
For forty-three minutes, I had stood beside the fireplace at the Dre estate outside Greenwich, Connecticut. My swollen feet throbbed inside my heels, and our unborn daughter kept kicking beneath my burgundy dress.
Then the front doors opened.
Matthias entered with Fiona Vale holding his arm.
Snow dusted his black overcoat while Fiona’s ivory gown shimmered beneath the enormous Christmas tree. Around her neck glittered a diamond necklace I recognized immediately.
Three weeks earlier, I had found its receipt hidden inside Matthias’s coat.
My daughter kicked again. “I know, sweetheart,” I whispered.
Matthias spotted me across the room, and for one second, something flashed across his face.
Calculation, not guilt.
He left Fiona near the entrance and approached me. “Serena.”
He kissed my cheek as though nothing was wrong. “You made it.”
“I drove myself.”
“I was going to call.”
“You said you were picking me up.”
“There was a situation downtown.”
I glanced toward Fiona as she accepted champagne from a waiter. “She seems like an expensive situation.”
“Keep your voice down.”
“My voice is down.”
Matthias glanced nervously at the bankers, developers, attorneys, and investors filling his parents’ mansion. “Fiona handles communications for the Hensley acquisition. Several people here are involved.”
“At Christmas?”
“It’s business.”
“Is the necklace business too?”
His expression barely changed, but after nine years as a trauma nurse, I knew what panic looked like before most people noticed it.
“What necklace?” he asked.
I almost laughed. “Never mind.”
Three weeks earlier, I had borrowed Matthias’s laptop to print paperwork for our daughter’s pediatrician. A hotel reservation was already open on the screen.
Two guests. One suite. New Haven.
He had told me he was spending that night in Boston.
I photographed everything I found after that: the reservation, restaurant receipts, a valet charge, and a calendar entry marked F.V. I never confronted him because the next morning, something far more terrifying arrived at my attorney’s office.
A sealed envelope had my name on it.
No return address.
Inside was a photocopied document listing Matthias, the Dre estate, and the exact date of tonight’s Christmas party. Beneath it was a crude diagram of the property and six words I had been unable to forget.
“Collateral losses within acceptable parameters.”
Someone wasn’t simply trying to expose my husband’s affair.
Someone was planning something involving this house, and innocent people apparently didn’t matter.
Now Matthias stood before me worrying about appearances.
“Tonight needs to go smoothly,” I said.
“Yes.”
“Your parents are here. Your investors. Your board chairman.”
His eyes narrowed. “What are you doing?”
I rested one hand protectively over our daughter. “Making sure tonight goes smoothly.”
He leaned closer. “You look strange.”
“I’m pregnant, publicly humiliated, and standing in heels. Pick one.”
“Serena, Fiona is here because...”
“Since you brought someone, I brought someone too.”
Matthias froze.
“What?”
I looked toward the front entrance.
The doors opened.
And for the first time that evening, I watched my husband’s confidence disappear as he recognized the person walking into his family’s home.
Her name was Evelyn Dre.
Matthias's older sister.
The woman his family had spent eleven years pretending did not exist.
She entered wearing a plain black coat, carrying a leather document case, with two Connecticut State Police investigators walking behind her.
The room went silent.
My father-in-law, Conrad Dre, dropped his champagne glass.
It shattered against the marble floor.
“Evelyn?” he whispered.
She looked directly at him.
“Hello, Dad.”
Matthias grabbed my wrist.
“What have you done?”
I pulled away.
“Something you should have done a long time ago.”
Evelyn stopped beneath the enormous Christmas tree.
Then she looked toward the sixty guests.
“Good evening. My name is Evelyn Dre.”
Nobody moved.
“Eleven years ago, my family told the world I suffered a breakdown and left the country.”
Her voice remained steady.
“That was a lie.”
Conrad stepped forward.
“Evelyn, this isn't the place.”
She looked at him.
“Funny. That's exactly what you said the night you locked me in the west wing.”
A murmur swept through the room.
My heart pounded.
Evelyn opened her document case.
“Tonight, I came to prevent something terrible.”
Matthias looked toward the investigators.
“What is this?”
One of them stepped forward.
“Mr. Dre, we're here regarding credible threats connected to this property.”
Conrad's face drained of color.
Evelyn looked at me.
“Serena.”
I nodded.
She turned back toward the room.
May you like
“Everyone needs to leave the house.”
And then the lights went out.
