Chapter 1 - Not Tonight
“What were you planning to do after I fell asleep?”
Anna’s fingers tightened around Dererick’s wrist.
The scissors stopped less than an inch from the hem of her white sleep shirt.
For one long second, neither of them moved.
The miniature camera on the dresser continued recording. Its tiny red light blinked in the darkness.
Dererick remained kneeling beside the bed in black latex gloves. His expression was not the startled face of an innocent husband caught doing something strange.
It was the controlled stillness of a man recalculating.
Anna’s heart hammered beneath the gray comforter.
She had spent six weeks preparing for this moment.
Six weeks pretending not to notice the unusual exhaustion after drinking his evening tea.
Six weeks waking with tiny cuts in her clothing, unfamiliar bruises on her arms, and gaps in her memory.
At first, Dererick told her the stress of her accounting job was affecting her health.
Then he suggested sleeping medication.
When she refused, the chamomile tea began appearing every night.
Anna’s doctor found traces of a sedative in her blood.
That was when she stopped drinking.
Tonight, she poured the tea into the bathroom sink while the faucet concealed the sound.
Now she stared at the black equipment bag on the bed.
A camera.
Scissors.
Several sealed plastic packets she could not identify.
Dererick slowly relaxed his grip on the scissors.
“You’re confused,” he said.
Anna did not release him.
“I watched you put on gloves.”
“I didn’t want to wake you.”
“You brought a camera into our bedroom.”
His eyes flicked toward the dresser.
That single glance confirmed something Anna already suspected.
The camera mattered more than the scissors.
Dererick shifted his weight.
Anna pulled his wrist higher.
The scissors fell onto the blanket.
Then Dererick smiled.
Not warmly.
Almost admiringly.
“You didn’t drink the tea.”
“No.”
“How long have you known?”
“Long enough.”
His smile disappeared.
From inside the black bag, a phone began vibrating.
The screen remained turned away from Anna, but she saw a name flash briefly before Dererick grabbed it.
Dr. Vale.
Anna recognized the name.
Dr. Marcus Vale was the physician who had signed her recent mental-health evaluation.
The evaluation Anna had never requested.
May you like
And the man calling her husband at two in the morning was not asking about her health.
He was checking whether she was unconscious.
