Chapter 1: The Scream Inside the Mansion
The perfection of high society is always built on the ugliest lies.
Today was supposed to be the happiest day of my life.
A lavish wedding inside a magnificent old estate in the countryside. Thousands of white roses. The finest champagne money could buy. The most influential guests in the country. I stood in my tailored black tuxedo, waiting for the angelic woman I was about to marry.
Then everything changed.
A desperate pounding shattered the silence.
Followed by the terrified cries of a child.
I sprinted down the long marble hallway. One of the housekeepers was already running toward the west wing, horror written all over her face.
When I looked through the glass panel in the door, my blood froze.
A little boy.
His clothes were filthy. Tears streamed down his face as he pounded his tiny fists against the thick glass, desperately begging to be let out. He was trapped inside a dark, suffocating room.
Standing just outside the door...
Was my fiancée.
The woman I was only minutes away from calling my wife, wrapped in her flawless white wedding gown.
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But her hands were shaking uncontrollably.
And she was clutching the room's key as tightly as she could.
