JULIAN POV
"Get behind me." I push Mara and Sienna toward the wall, my body blocking theirs. "Don't make a sound."
The footsteps are slow. Deliberate. Coming from the living room. Getting closer.
My phone is dead—died right after Lyra's call. Convenient. Too convenient. She planned this. Cut the power. Killed the phones. Trapped us here.
"Dad, I'm scared," Mara whispers against my back.
"I know, baby. I know." My heart is racing but I keep my voice steady. "We're going to be okay."
I'm lying. I have no idea if we'll be okay.
The footsteps stop. Right outside the kitchen doorway. Whoever it is knows exactly where we are.
"Julian." The voice makes my blood freeze. "I know you're in there. Come out and let's talk. Like adults."
It's not Lyra's voice.
It's Vanessa's.
Mara gasps. "Mom? You're alive?"
"Of course I'm alive, sweetheart." Vanessa's silhouette appears in the doorway. She's holding something. A knife? A gun? I can't tell in the dark. "Did you really think I'd let that crazy girl kill me?"
"But the blood—" Sienna starts.
"Chicken blood from the market." Vanessa laughs. "Dramatic, I know. But necessary. I needed you to think Lyra was the dangerous one. I needed you off-balance."
My brain is struggling to catch up. "You're working WITH Lyra?"
"God, no. That girl is insane. Completely unhinged." Vanessa steps into the kitchen. The moonlight through the window catches her face. She's smiling. "I'm working AGAINST her. And you're going to help me."
"Why would we help you?" I demand.
"Because if you don't, I'll make sure those photos of you and your teenage girlfriend go viral. And I'll add my own testimony about how you've been grooming her for years. How you invited her here specifically to seduce her." Vanessa's voice is sweet poison. "By the time I'm done, you won't just lose your reputation, Julian. You'll lose your freedom. Prison time for statutory rape sounds about right."
"She's eighteen!" Sienna protests. "That's legal!"
"But she wanted you when she was fifteen. Julian admitted that himself." Vanessa looks at me. "Didn't you? When you were talking in the hallway earlier? I heard everything through Lyra's cameras. The ones she planted. The ones I now control."
This is a nightmare. It has to be.
"What do you want?" I ask.
"I want what's mine. You. This house. The life I gave up." Vanessa moves closer. "I made a mistake leaving you, Julian. Chad was a disaster. He took my money and left me broke. Humiliated. I need you back. I need this life back."
"You can't be serious—"
"Oh, I'm very serious." She holds up her phone. "One click and these photos go to every news outlet in the state. Your daughter's best friend. Your secret abandoned daughter coming for revenge. The perfect scandal. You'll be destroyed."
Mara steps around me. "You're blackmailing Dad? Your ex-husband?"
"I'm securing my future, Mara. OUR future. We can be a family again. Julian will see reason once the alternative is prison."
"You're insane," I say.
"I'm practical." Vanessa's smile fades. "You have until sunrise. Agree to take me back, publicly, or I destroy you. And trust me—by the time I'm done, you'll wish Lyra had just drowned you in the lake."
She backs toward the door. "Oh, and one more thing. Lyra is still out there. Still angry. Still planning to kill you. So you have two problems now: me and her. Good luck solving both."
She's gone before I can respond. The front door slams. An engine starts. She drove away.
We stand there in shocked silence.
"Did that just happen?" Sienna asks.
"Your ex-wife is blackmailing you to get back together," Mara says flatly. "And your other daughter wants you dead. This is the worst night of my life."
"Mine too," I admit.
"At least you didn't find out your dad is a predator who kisses teenagers."
"Mara—"
"Save it." She turns on her phone flashlight. "We need to call the police."
"And tell them what?" I ask. "That my ex-wife is blackmailing me over photos of me kissing an eighteen-year-old? They'll arrest ME."
"Then what do we do?" Sienna asks.
Before I can answer, her phone buzzes. She checks it. Goes pale.
"What?" I ask.
She shows me. A text from an unknown number. But not Lyra's writing style. This is someone else.
"I can make Vanessa's photos disappear. I can make Lyra disappear too. But it will cost you. Meet me at the marina. Alone. 3 AM. Come or everyone you love dies."
"It's a trap," Mara says immediately.
"Obviously," I agree.
"Then you can't go," Sienna says.
"I don't have a choice. If there's even a chance this person can help—"
"Or it's Lyra pretending to help so she can kill you!" Sienna grabs my arm. "Julian, think! This is exactly what she wants. To isolate you. To get you alone."
She's right. But I'm out of options.
"I have to go. For Mara's sake. For yours." I look at my daughter. "If I don't come back—"
"Don't say that!" Mara's crying again. "I'm mad at you. I'm so mad. But I don't want you dead."
I hug her. She lets me. It's something.
"Stay here. Lock the doors. If I'm not back by sunrise, call Marcus. Tell him everything." I look at Sienna. "Take care of her."
"Julian, please don't do this—"
I kiss her. Quick. Desperate. Probably the last time.
Then I grab my keys and leave before I lose my nerve.
The drive to the marina takes ten minutes. It's 2:50 AM. Dark. Empty. My headlights are the only light for miles.
I park. Get out. The marina is silent except for water lapping against boats.
"Hello?" I call out. "I'm here. Where are you?"
Nothing. Just wind and water.
I walk down the dock. Every shadow looks like a threat. Every sound makes me jump.
Then I see it. A boat at the far end. Someone sitting in it. Waiting.
I walk closer. Closer. My heart is pounding so hard I can hear it.
The figure stands up. Steps into the moonlight.
It's not Lyra. It's not Vanessa.
It's Sarah. My first wife. Lyra's mother.
The woman who supposedly died six months ago.
She smiles. "Hello, Julian. Surprise. I'm not dead. And we need to talk about what you're going to do to make up for twenty years of abandonment."
I can't breathe. Can't think. Can't process.
Sarah is alive. Sarah faked her death. Sarah and Lyra planned this together.
"How—" I start.
"How am I alive? Easy. I never got cancer. That was the story we told you. To see if you'd come. To see if you'd care." Her smile turns cold. "You didn't. You never even called to confirm. That's when I knew—you really didn't love us. You really had forgotten we existed."
"Sarah, I can explain—"
"Save it. I don't want apologies. I want payment." She holds up a tablet. "Five million dollars. Wired to this account. Or everyone sees the photos. Everyone learns you abandoned your dying daughter—except she wasn't dying, was she? You just didn't care enough to check."
This is extortion. This is insane. This is—
A gunshot cracks through the night.
Sarah stumbles. Blood blooms across her chest. She falls into the water.
I spin around. Someone's standing on the dock behind me. Holding a gun.
It's Marcus. My best friend. The only person I trusted.
"Marcus? What the hell—"
"Sorry, Julian." He doesn't lower the gun. "But I can't let you ruin everything I've built. Not when I'm this close."
"What are you talking about?"
"Vanessa came to me six months ago. Offered me a deal. Help her get you back, help her destroy your reputation, and I get twenty percent of everything you own. Your business. Your money. Everything." Marcus smiles. "I'm your business partner, remember? I know exactly how much you're worth."
The world tilts. "You're behind this? All of it?"
"Not all of it. Lyra and Sarah's revenge plot was real. I just... encouraged it. Funded it. Made sure they had the resources to make your life hell." He shrugs. "And Vanessa's blackmail? Also real. I just made sure she had the evidence she needed."
"You betrayed me." I can barely speak. "You're my best friend."
"I'm a businessman. And you were too comfortable. Too successful. Too blind to see what was happening right under your nose." Marcus gestures with the gun. "Now we're going to go back to the house. You're going to sign over half your company to me. And then you're going to disappear. Quietly. Or everyone you love dies. Starting with that teenage girlfriend of yours."
He cocks the gun. Points it at my chest.
"Move. Now."
Behind us, in the water, Sarah's body floats facedown.
My best friend just murdered my ex-wife. And now he's going to kill me too.
Unless I find a way to stop him.