Chapter 1

My life in San Diego was supposed to be perfect.

I was a successful architect, my firm was finally taking off, and I was married to my high-school sweetheart, Liam. We lived in a beautiful house in La Jolla, a testament to how far we' d come. But I was exhausted, stretched thin between my career and a marriage that felt increasingly like a performance.

Liam, who worked in finance, loved the image of our life more than the reality. He especially loved being the son of a revered Marine General. It was a legacy he wore like a designer suit. My own father, a Marine Colonel killed in action, was a quieter, more personal source of pride for me.

To ease the load, we hired a live-in housekeeper, Brenda. She was from a poor town in West Virginia, and Liam thought it was a noble thing to do, giving her a chance.

The problems started on her first day.

I came home from a site visit to find her in my kitchen, rearranging my spice rack.

"Oh, Chloe, honey," she said, her voice dripping with false sweetness. "You just had all these in a jumble. A man like Liam needs a properly organized home."

I forced a smile. "Thanks, Brenda, but I knew where everything was."

She just patted my arm. "Don't you worry. I'll get this place whipped into shape."

Liam came home an hour later and saw the reorganized kitchen.

"Wow, Brenda, this looks great," he boomed. "See, Chloe? This is what we needed."

I tried to talk to him that night.

"Liam, she' s a bit much. She criticized the brand of olive oil I buy."

He waved a dismissive hand, not looking up from his tablet. "She's just an old-fashioned country woman, Chloe. She means well. Just be tolerant."

But her behavior wasn't just old-fashioned. It was targeted.

She would praise Liam for simply existing. "Oh, Liam, you work so hard for this family."

Then she'd turn to me. "It must be nice, having a hobby that pays." My architecture career was a "hobby."

I tried to set a boundary. "Brenda, my work is my career, not a hobby."

She immediately looked wounded, her eyes welling up. "Oh, my. I didn't mean anything by it. I'm just a simple woman. I guess my words come out all wrong."

Liam overheard and pulled me aside later.

"What was that about? You hurt her feelings. Can't you see she's just trying to compliment you in her own way?"

"By insulting my profession?"

"You're being too sensitive. She's from a different world. Just let it go."

I felt a familiar frustration building, a wall rising between Liam and me. I retreated to my home office, the one place that felt like my own, and tried to lose myself in my work.

The next evening, Liam came to my office door.

"Hey," he said, trying to sound conciliatory. "Let's not fight. Brenda's going to be leaving after Memorial Day weekend anyway. Her sister needs her back home."

I felt a small flicker of hope. "Really? That's soon."

"Yeah. So can we just have some peace until then? For my sake?" He gave me a charming smile, the one that always used to work.

I sighed, wanting to believe him. "Okay, Liam. Until Memorial Day."

I let him pull me into a hug, but as I rested my head on his shoulder, I felt a deep, unsettling coldness. It was the feeling of being utterly alone in my own home.