Chapter 1 - The Birthday CakeDaniel Stellan walked into his daughter’s birthday party and froze.
For one long second, the noise in the backyard seemed to disappear.
The balloons stopped swaying.
The children stopped laughing.
Even the music coming from the patio speakers sounded distant and distorted.
All Daniel could see was Lily.
His three-year-old daughter sat on the wooden floor beside the birthday table, her little pink dress stained with frosting. Her hands were trembling as she picked up chunks of broken cake and dropped them into a trash bag.
She was crying so hard she could barely breathe.
Daniel’s eyes moved to the ruined cake.
It had been a three-tiered vanilla cake shaped like a castle, the one Lily had spent weeks asking for.
Now it was smashed across the table and floor.
The cake topper had been snapped in half.
One frosting-covered candle lay beneath Lily’s knee.
Standing several feet away was Vanessa.
Daniel’s wife.
She held a glass of champagne and watched Lily clean.
Beside her stood a man Daniel had never seen before.
Tall.
Dark-haired.
Thirty-five, perhaps.
A charcoal suit.
No tie.
His eyes met Daniel’s immediately.
Neither man spoke.
“Lily?”
Daniel dropped his keys on the patio table and hurried forward.
His daughter looked up.
“Daddy.”
That one word broke something inside him.
Daniel crouched beside her.
“Why are you on the floor?”
Lily’s lower lip trembled.
“I broke it.”
Daniel stared at her.
“You broke the cake?”
She shook her head.
“No.”
“Then why are you cleaning it?”
Lily looked toward Vanessa.
Then toward the stranger.
Then back at Daniel.
“She said I had to.”
Daniel slowly stood.
“Vanessa.”
She smiled, but there was no warmth in it.
“She knocked over the table.”
“She’s three.”
“She knows better.”
Daniel looked around.
Thirty minutes earlier, Vanessa had called him at the office and told him everything was ready. She had insisted he finish a meeting before coming home.
He had thought she was trying to surprise him.
Now he wondered whether she had simply wanted him to arrive at a very specific moment.
Daniel looked at the stranger.
“Who are you?”
The man extended a hand.
“Evan Mercer.”
Daniel did not take it.
“Do we know each other?”
“No.”
“Then why are you in my house?”
Evan lowered his hand.
“I was invited.”
“By Vanessa?”
Evan glanced at her.
“Yes.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
He turned back to Lily.
“Come here, sweetheart.”
Lily ran into his arms.
The moment Daniel lifted her, she buried her face against his shoulder.
He felt her tiny body shaking.
“I’m sorry, Daddy.”
“For what?”
“I didn't mean to.”
“Mean to what?”
She whispered into his shirt.
“Make the man angry.”
Daniel went still.
“What man?”
Lily pointed toward Evan.
Evan’s expression changed.
Just slightly.
Daniel noticed.
“Did Evan make you cry?”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
Lily looked over Daniel’s shoulder toward the kitchen.
Her face turned pale.
“The man upstairs.”
Daniel slowly turned.
“There’s nobody upstairs.”
Lily shook her head.
“He was there.”
Vanessa suddenly stepped forward.
“Daniel, she’s frightened. She’s been imagining things all afternoon.”
Daniel stared at his wife.
“You said she knocked over the cake.”
“She did.”
Daniel walked to the cake table.
The table was still standing.
He placed one hand on it.
Solid.
Stable.
He pushed lightly.
Nothing happened.
The cake had not fallen because the table tipped.
Something else had happened.
Then Daniel saw it.
A perfect handprint in frosting on the side of the cake.
The fingers were long.
Adult-sized.
He looked at Lily.
“Who touched your cake?”
She started crying again.
Vanessa snapped, “Enough.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Enough what?”
“This is supposed to be her birthday.”
“Exactly.”
His voice had become dangerously calm.
“So why is my daughter cleaning cake off the floor while you drink champagne?”
Vanessa's expression hardened.
“I told you, she ruined it.”
Daniel reached down and picked up the broken cake topper.
One of its plastic pieces had been driven straight through the frosting.
He looked closely.
There were tiny scratches on the wood beneath the cake.
Something had dragged across it.
Not fallen.
Dragged.
Deliberately.
Daniel turned toward Evan.
“You saw what happened.”
Evan did not answer.
“Did Lily knock it over?”
Evan stared at him for two seconds.
Then he said quietly, “No.”
Vanessa’s glass shattered against the patio floor.
Everyone turned.
She looked horrified.
Evan continued.
“She didn't.”
Daniel’s chest tightened.
“Then what happened?”
Evan looked at Vanessa.
For the first time, fear appeared in his eyes.
“I think,” he said carefully, “you should ask your wife why she needed you to see it.”
Daniel stared at him.
Vanessa’s face had gone white.
Before Daniel could speak, every light in the house went out.
The music stopped.
The children screamed.
Darkness swallowed the backyard.
Then Daniel heard a sound from the second floor.
Three slow knocks.
Knock.
Knock.
Knock.
Lily buried her face against his neck.
“He’s there,” she whispered.
Daniel looked up at the dark windows.
A silhouette moved behind the glass.
And then his phone vibrated.
An alert appeared on the screen.
HOME SECURITY SYSTEM: REMOTE ADMINISTRATOR LOGIN DETECTED.
Daniel stared at it.
May you like
Someone had accessed his house.
And they were still inside.
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