ALEXANDER
By the time Cole and I pulled up in front of my mother’s house, the sun was already going down.
It was almost evening.
That alone unsettled me.
Helen was a creature of habit. If she planned to be out late, she would have let Irene know. If she planned to stay in, every light would have been on by now, the house alive in that quiet, controlled way that always announced her presence before you ever saw her.
But the mansion sat too still.
I cut the engine and stepped out of the car, my instincts sharpening immediately. Cole did the same, his posture shifting from relaxed to alert without a word exchanged between us. We didn’t need to talk. Years of working together had taught us how to read each other’s silences.
As we approached the front door, something felt… off.
I reache
