ELENA

The entire mansion was too quiet after Dominic’s yelling from upstairs had finally faded into the silence.

It wasn’t often that I got silence like this. No footsteps pounding down the halls, no raised voices, no heavy tension crawling along the walls. Just a soft stillness, broken only by the distant ticking of the old grandfather clock in the hallway. It felt strange. Unnatural. But I wasn’t going to question it.

I sat on the edge of the window seat in the back hallway, hidden ...