Motion Detected — Orange Grove Lane House.
Back Door Opened.
Daniel went cold.
The old house.
The one that had been locked up for two years — abandoned, dusty, heavy with memories he had sworn never to revisit. It was the first home he bought with his wife, Emily, before the mansions, before the millions, before life split cleanly in two.
He stood so abruptly his chair scraped against the marble floor.
“Excuse me,” he muttered. “Emergency.”
He didn’t explain.
Because one name was already lodged in his mind like a splinter:
Alma Reyes.
The new nanny.
The quiet young woman with rough hands and gentle eyes who had arrived just a month earlier… and who had somehow changed something in his twin boys, Noah and Lucas.
And Daniel didn’t trust change.
Not anymore.
As he sped through the city, another voice echoed in his mind — smooth, patient, poisonous.
“Mr. Salgado, I don’t want to accuse anyone… but that girl is getting too attached. And you know how those stories end.”
Mrs. Patricia “Trish” Palmer, the longtime housekeeper. The woman who had cared for Emily during her difficult pregnancy. The one who “kept everything running” while Daniel buried himself in work instead of grief.
Trish never shouted.