Beneath a sky streaked with copper and lavender, a black luxury truck rolled through the iron gates of Silver Pine Estate, a sprawling ranch tucked into the hills of northern California. The driver did not step out immediately. Instead, the man behind the wheel inhaled slowly, as if preparing for a dive beneath deep water. His name was Raymond Kessler, a self made investor known for steel nerves and quiet generosity. Since the death of his wife two years earlier, people whispered that his heart had turned to ice. Yet tonight, doubt gnawed at him like a restless animal.
Raymond opened his phone camera, pressed record, then crouched down and slid beneath the truck, hiding among shadows and dust. The idea had come to him in the middle of a sleepless night. His fiancée, Madelyn Pierce, was beautiful, charming, adored by social magazines. She claimed to love Raymond and his infant triplets. But a tiny voice in his chest kept asking whether she loved them, or whether she loved the empire he controlled.