Chapter 1
Leander did not ask Bastian to explain while Melisande stood three feet away.
He picked Ophelia up and carried her downstairs.
“Bastian. With me.”
The boy followed immediately.
Melisande touched her cheek.
“You’re actually taking their side?”
Leander stopped at the bottom of the staircase.
“They’re my children.”
“I live here too.”
“Not tonight.”
Her expression changed.
“You cannot throw me out because two spoiled children are lying.”
Bastian flinched.
Leander saw it.
That was enough.
He called the house manager, Audrey Bell, and asked her to remain with the children in the library.
Then he called his attorney, Grant Mercer.
“I need Melisande out of the house tonight.”
Grant did not ask why first.
“Is she an owner?”
“No.”
“Tenant agreement?”
“No.”
“Married?”
“No.”
Melisande was Leander’s fiancée.
They had lived together for almost eighteen months.
The wedding was scheduled in nine weeks.
Grant said:
“Then have security arrange a hotel and preserve her belongings. Do not destroy anything. Do not threaten her. And whatever happened, do not touch her again.”
Leander looked toward his hand.
He had slapped her.
“I know.”
“Police involved?”
“Probably.”
“Then tell the truth.”
Leander did.
He reported exactly what happened.
Melisande shoved Ophelia.
Leander caught her.
He confronted Melisande.
Then struck Melisande once.
No excuses.
No attempt to make security footage disappear.
Ophelia was examined that evening.
No physical injury.
Fear was another matter.
She refused to use the staircase.
Bastian refused to leave her alone.
When a child specialist finally spoke with both separately, Bastian told the same story twice.
Three weeks earlier, Melisande had cornered him near the upper landing.
“She told me Dad was tired of me breaking things.”
Leander stared at the specialist.
Bastian continued.
“She said if I kept being difficult, I’d have to live somewhere else.”
“Did she push you?”
Bastian shook his head.
“She bumped me.”
“With what?”
“Her shoulder.”
“Did you fall?”
“No.”
“I grabbed the railing.”
“What happened after?”
“She said I should be more careful.”
Leander closed his eyes.
Then Bastian said something worse.
“She wrote it down.”
Leander looked up.
“Wrote what?”
“That I almost fell.”
May you like
The first clue appeared before midnight.
Melisande had been documenting accidents that she had helped create.
