Chapter 1 - The Door Behind the Garage

I did not remember crossing the security room.

One second I was staring at the monitors, my hands locked around the arms of the chair. The next, I was at the door with Hector beside me.

“Mr. Vance,” he said, “if you go in angry, she’ll know you were watching.”

“She put her hands on my daughter.”

“I know.”

“Then unlock the door.”

Hector hesitated only long enough to make me hate him for being right.

“Give me thirty seconds,” he said. “Let me bring two officers from the exterior detail inside. Quietly. No uniforms.”

I looked back at the screens.

Marisol had crouched in front of Sofia. Chloe stood a few feet away, furious but controlled.

“You will regret that,” Chloe said.

Marisol’s voice remained steady. “Not as much as I would regret letting you frighten her again.”

Again.

The word hit harder than anything else.

I turned to Hector. “You heard that.”

“Yes.”

“How long?”

“I don’t know.”

“You run security.”

“And until today, I was instructed that household disagreements were private unless someone reported danger.” He met my eyes. “No one reported danger.”

I almost shouted at him, but the truth stopped me.

Neither had I.

I had built a house with walls thick enough to stop bullets and somehow made it possible for my daughters to be afraid in silence.

Hector unlocked the door.

We moved through the service corridor toward the living room.

I heard Chloe before I saw her.

“You think he’ll choose you over me?” she said.

Marisol answered, “This is not about me.”

“It is always about you. They run to you. They listen to you. They look at you like—”

“Like I don’t scare them?”

Silence.

I stepped into the room.

Sofia saw me first.

Her face changed so quickly that I almost stopped walking.

“Daddy?”

Valeria stood up.

Chloe turned around.

For one instant, panic broke through her expression. Then it vanished behind a perfect smile.

“Alexander. You’re back.”

“I never left.”

The smile disappeared.

Marisol looked at me once, then down at Sofia.

Chloe gave a short laugh. “What does that mean?”

“It means Toronto was a lie.”

Valeria stared at me.

I hated myself for the fear in her eyes. She was wondering whether I had been spying on them because of something they had done.

I crossed the room and knelt in front of both girls.

“You are not in trouble,” I said. “Neither of you. Do you understand?”

Sofia nodded but did not speak.

Valeria whispered, “Are you mad at Marisol?”

“No.”

“Are you going to fire her?”

“No.”

Behind me, Chloe said, “This is ridiculous.”

I stood.

“Is it?”

“She interfered with me.”

“She stopped you from hurting Sofia.”

“I barely touched her wrist.”

I looked toward Hector.

“Show her.”

He held up a tablet. The live security feed was frozen on Chloe’s hand around Sofia’s wrist.

Chloe’s face drained of color.

“You recorded me?”

“I recorded my own common rooms under a system you knew existed.”

“You were watching me in secret.”

“I was watching Marisol.”

That landed differently.

Chloe blinked. “What?”

“You told me she was stealing. You told me she was turning my daughters against me. I believed enough of it to test her.”

Marisol looked at me.

There was no accusation in her face.

That was worse.

Chloe recovered quickly. “And now you see how manipulative she is. She knew how to perform for the cameras.”

“The girls didn’t.”

Her eyes flicked toward Valeria.

My older daughter immediately moved closer to her sister.

There it was again.

That practiced movement.

I stepped between Chloe and them.

“Pack a bag.”

Chloe stared at me. “Excuse me?”

“You’re leaving tonight.”

“Alexander, don’t be absurd.”

“I’m not discussing this in front of them.”

“You’re throwing away our marriage over one argument with children?”

“We are not married.”

Her jaw tightened.

“We were going to be.”

“Not anymore.”

Sofia began to cry quietly.

I turned back to her, but Valeria spoke first.

“Daddy?”

“Yes?”

“Can you get Bunny down?”

I followed her eyes to the shelf.

The old stuffed rabbit sat there as if it had been placed on an altar.

I reached up, took it down, and gave it to Sofia.

She pressed it against her chest.

Then she looked at Chloe.

“She put Mommy’s picture in the trash too.”

The room went completely still.

I looked at my daughter.

“What picture?”

Valeria’s eyes filled with tears.

“The silver frame from our upstairs hallway.”

Chloe stepped forward. “That was an accident.”

Marisol shook her head.

“No,” she said softly. “It wasn’t.”

I turned to her.

“What else don’t I know?”

Marisol’s expression changed.

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And for the first time since I entered the room, I understood that the cameras had not shown me the whole truth.

They had only opened the first door.