Chapter 1
“Quickly, lie down next to me and do not breathe,” the old woman whispered urgently. “When your husband comes in, you will understand why I am pretending to be dead.”
Hannah Miller froze in complete shock.
Five seconds earlier, she had run into the living room of the old family home in Maplewood and found her grandmother, Florence, lying motionless on the rug. She already had her cell phone ready to call emergency services when the seventy year old woman opened her eyes and squeezed her wrist tightly.
“Grandma, what are you doing right now?” Hannah asked in a hushed, trembling voice.
“Obey me immediately, because they are coming through the front door right now,” Florence insisted.
Hannah was thirty six years old and worked as a seamstress from her home workshop. For weeks she had felt that something was deeply wrong in her marriage. Her husband of ten years, Brandon, had started hiding his phone, showing up with flowers for no reason, and getting strangely nervous whenever she asked about their family finances.
Then came Brenda, Brandon’s older sister and a former real estate agent who was drowning in heavy debts. She used to visit the house twice a year, but now she came almost daily, opening the refrigerator as if it were her own and repeating that the old property was worth a fortune being completely wasted. The grand house had belonged to Hannah’s grandfather, and after the inheritance was settled, it had been officially registered under the names of Florence and Hannah.
The strangest part of all was Brenda’s sudden and intense concern for the old grandmother.
“Drink this tea, Grandma Florence, because it is all natural and will help you sleep like a baby,” Brenda would say with a sweet smile.
After drinking the brew, Florence would fall into an unnaturally deep sleep, and one afternoon she woke up with no memory of how she had even gotten into her bed. Two days later, Hannah found the wooden drawer where she kept copies of the property deeds in total disarray.
“Did you look through the house papers?” she asked Brandon directly.
He exploded with anger immediately. “You are just as paranoid as your grandmother, and I cannot believe I have to ask permission to touch things in my own house!”
Hannah did not argue back, but that night she hid the legal documents in a safer place.
On Tuesday afternoon, a client unexpectedly canceled a dress fitting, allowing Hannah to return home two hours earlier than scheduled. The front door was slightly ajar, and inside the hallway there was a strange smell of alcohol, heavy perfume, and a sharp chemical substance.
She found Florence lying motionless on the floor, and now her grandmother was demanding that she lie down beside her.
At that exact moment, the sound of the front lock clicking open echoed through the house. Two people walked into the room, and Hannah instantly recognized Brandon’s heavy footsteps alongside Brenda’s sharp high heels.
“Have they fallen asleep yet?” Brenda asked in a cold voice.
“Both of them are lying on the floor,” Brandon whispered back nervously. “Are you sure you did not give them an overdose?”
“They are going to sleep for hours, so just give me the folder right now,” Brenda ordered.
Brandon knelt right beside Hannah, and she stifled a scream when she felt her husband raise her hand into the air.
“Forgive me, Hannah,” he murmured quietly.
Brenda dipped her thumb into dark ink and pressed it firmly onto several pieces of paper, and then they repeated the exact same process with Florence.
“With these prints and the copied signatures, Attorney Vance can easily draw up the power of attorney and the property transfer,” Brenda said triumphantly. “When it appears in the official Registry, this entire house will finally be ours.”
“What happens if they report us to the authorities?” Brandon asked anxiously.
Brenda let out a dry, harsh laugh. “Hannah does not have the money to fight us in court for years, and we will simply put the old woman in a cheap nursing home while claiming she has severe dementia so she stops being a problem in a couple of months.”
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Hannah felt Florence squeeze her elbow gently to prevent her from leaping up in rage. Brandon did not say no to his sister’s cruel plan, and his terrible silence was far worse than any words he could have spoken. The man who kissed their daughter every night had just listened to a plot to get rid of his wife’s family, yet he remained completely silent.
Hannah still could not believe what was happening, but what would unfold next would forever destroy the family she thought she had built.
