Chapter 1 - THE KEY THAT SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN THERE
Rachel Vaughn had Sophia by the sleeve when Ethan reached the upstairs hallway.
“Daddy chose you over me.”
Sophia was crying so hard she could barely breathe.
Rachel pulled her backward several feet from the staircase railing.
“Rachel!”
Ethan crossed the hall in three strides.
Sophia tore free and ran toward him.
“Daddy, help!”
He lifted his three-year-old daughter against his chest and turned his body between her and Rachel.
“Stay away from my daughter.”
Rachel did not look frightened.
She smiled.
Then raised a brass house key with a dark-red leather tag.
“You should ask who let me in.”
Ethan’s anger shifted.
The front door opened downstairs.
“Ethan?”
Laura appeared beneath the chandelier, still wearing the beige trench coat she had taken to work that morning.
Then she saw the key.
Her face emptied.
Ethan noticed.
He carried Sophia downstairs without taking his eyes off his wife.
Rachel followed slowly.
Like someone who had been waiting for exactly this moment.
Ethan took the key from her.
The leather tag was scratched, but he recognized the small initials stamped into the back.
L.C.
Laura Cole.
He looked at his wife.
“Laura… why does she have your key?”
Laura said nothing.
Rachel laughed softly.
“I told you he’d find out eventually.”
Ethan’s expression hardened.
“Find out what?”
Laura finally looked at Sophia.
The child had buried her face against Ethan’s shoulder.
“I thought you two were supposed to be gone.”
Ethan went still.
Not because Laura knew Rachel had been inside.
Because Laura had just admitted she expected her to be there.
Rachel’s smile widened.
May you like
And Ethan realized the woman who had once nearly destroyed his marriage had not broken into his home.
His wife had let her in.
