Chapter 1 - The Night the Lights Died
“No one is coming for you.”
Trent Holloway stood over his pregnant wife with both hands wrapped around a wooden bat.
Maya sat collapsed on the white carpet of their penthouse, one arm protecting her stomach and the other holding her trembling body upright.
Red wine soaked into her white dress.
A broken glass glittered near her bare feet.
Seven months pregnant, exhausted and trapped, she could barely breathe without pain.
Behind Trent, his parents sat comfortably on the leather sofa.
They were not frightened.
They were laughing.
“Teach her again,” Celeste Holloway said, lifting her wineglass as though she were watching a show.
Richard Holloway leaned back beside her, smiling with quiet satisfaction.
Trent lowered the bat until its tip touched the carpet beside Maya’s knee.
“You should have signed the papers,” he whispered. “Now look what you made me do.”
Maya’s eyes moved toward the coffee table.
Her cracked phone lay beneath its edge.
The screen was dim, but one message still glowed through the shattered glass.
SOS SENT.
A single name appeared beneath it.
Alex.
Maya fought through the pain and dragged the phone closer with two fingers.
Trent noticed.
His smile disappeared.
He lunged down and snatched it from her.
Maya looked straight into his eyes.
“He got it.”
For the first time that night, Trent looked afraid.
He raised the phone, preparing to smash it against the marble floor.
Then every light in the penthouse went out.
Celeste stopped laughing.
Richard sat forward.
The smart locks clicked open one after another.
From the hallway came the sharp metallic sound of the elevator arriving.
DING.
Heavy footsteps moved toward the front door.
Trent tightened his grip on the bat.
Maya held her stomach and stared into the darkness.
A calm male voice came from the other side of the door.
“Drop the bat, Trent.”
Trent’s face went pale.
May you like
Because he recognized the voice of the man he had spent years convincing Maya was never coming home.
👉 But to understand why Trent feared that voice, we have to go back to the first lie he told after Maya’s father died.
