The house had been too quiet for too long.

Not the comfortable quiet of an empty home waiting patiently for its owners to return. This silence was different. It clung to the walls. It pressed into the corners. It sat heavy in the air like a held breath that had gone on far too long. Days had passed since anyone had last crossed the threshold of the Vale mansion, and though the exterior still looked immaculate—gates polished, hedges trimmed, windows gleaming—the inside had begun to ...