Chapter 1 - The Voice in the Rain

Rain slammed against the towering windows of Castillo Manor as Alejandro Castillo stood frozen in the marble foyer.

For three years, he had imagined the moment he might see Elena again.

He had imagined airports.

Hospitals.

Remote villages.

Anonymous hotel rooms.

He had even imagined finding her grave.

He had never imagined finding his missing wife barefoot in a servant’s uniform inside the home they had once shared.

“Elena.”

Her name barely escaped his lips.

The woman standing near the overturned bucket flinched as though hearing it caused pain.

Her dark hair had been cut unevenly to her shoulders.

Her face was thinner.

There were faint shadows beneath her eyes.

And around her left wrist was a fading purple bruise.

Alejandro moved toward her.

Elena stepped backward.

That single movement hurt him more than anything else.

Three years ago, Elena Castillo had disappeared on her way to a charity meeting in downtown Miami.

Her car had been found near the waterfront.

Her purse had been inside.

Her phone had been smashed beneath the passenger seat.

Police initially suspected kidnapping.

Then they suspected suicide.

Then they suspected Elena had deliberately vanished.

Alejandro rejected every theory.

He had spent millions hiring investigators across Europe, South America, and the Caribbean.

Yet Elena had apparently been here.

Thirty yards from his bedroom.

Under the same roof.

“Elena, look at me.”

She did.

For one heartbeat, Alejandro saw the woman he remembered.

Then terror returned to her eyes.

Footsteps sounded above them.

Vivian Moretti appeared at the top of the grand staircase.

She wore a silk burgundy dress and held a crystal wineglass.

Vivian had entered Alejandro’s life eighteen months after Elena disappeared.

She had called herself a family friend.

Then an adviser.

Then gradually, almost invisibly, she had taken control of the household.

Alejandro looked at her.

“You knew.”

Vivian smiled.

“I know many things.”

Alejandro pulled out his phone.

“Freeze every account connected to Vivian Moretti.”

Vivian’s smile disappeared.

“Alejandro, don’t be ridiculous.”

“You made my wife clean the floors of her own house.”

“You don’t understand what you’re looking at.”

Alejandro’s eyes moved toward Elena’s wrist.

“Then explain the bruises.”

Vivian descended one stair.

Elena suddenly whispered something.

“Don’t.”

Alejandro turned.

Elena was staring at Vivian.

Not angrily.

Fearfully.

“She’ll hurt them.”

Alejandro felt cold spread through his body.

“Hurt who?”

Elena’s lips trembled.

Vivian quietly placed her wineglass on the banister.

Then somewhere beneath the mansion, a child screamed.

Alejandro stopped breathing.

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Because Elena closed her eyes and whispered.

“She knows you heard that.”