Chapter 1
A tall, dignified figure in a lustrous black silk suit remained standing by the window and looking out over the panorama of Tyler Manor, landscaped with a beautiful flower garden that show off beauty under the fading sun in the near sunset of the Orlando, Florida suburbs.
The owner of a face as sharp as a frieze of a divinity slowly pulled off his teal-colored sunglasses as he heard the sound of someone's footsteps entering the room with a voice rising behind him.
“Dom… did you come here by yourself?”
The tall figure turned behind him. He saw a middle-aged woman dressed in a black lace dress, contrasting with her fair skin and golden-blonde hair. Isabel stepped to stop in front of the Tyler family's only son, Dominique, who was rushing back from a coal mine in Madison, West Virginia, to attend the funeral of his father. News of the death of former energy giant Tyler Power Group executive was spread by the media across the United States.
The death of Edmund Tyler, a fifty-five-year-old man who was once one of America's powerhouses, made headlines in the newspapers. But what people are more interested in is that Edmund Tyler died of murder.
“Dom...when are you returning to West Virginia?”
Isabel asked in the silence. For many years, Dominic, her only son spent a rugged life in the coal mines of the Appalachian Mountains.
But toiling in the harsh conditions as heir to energy giant Tyler Power Group has not diminished the handsome and charming only son.
On the contrary, Dominik looks even stronger. With a large physique, tanned skin, sharp face as if he had almost been printed from his father, dark copper brown hair, thick eyebrows and steel eyes of rust. The nose is long with a ridge and the facial structure is sharp and dark with a strong jawline.
Isabel felt as if Edmund was still alive before her.
“I must rush back to the mine tomorrow.”
“You're probably still worried here, I know.” Isabel hugged her son before setting him free. She let out a heavy sigh as she saw Dominik's dark, serious expression. Since coming back from Madison The state of West Virginia and Edmund's funeral passed swiftly. She saw that her sons were usually kept in a room in the right wing of the manor facing the east. A place full of beautiful flower gardens and small wooden huts that can be seen in the distance.
“Father's death made everyone here uncomfortable. I knew it was a shock. Yes… Edmund was shot in his room by someone unknown.”
It was the room where she and her son were standing right now. It was a palatial retreat with the most exquisite and refined antique décor of all Tyler Mansion.
As his mother finished speaking, the young man glanced at a small wooden hut next to the flower garden that he could not see far away. He lightly clenched his jaw before speaking.
“What exactly happened, Mom? I learned from the police that there was another person involved in the incident, a housewife. But I wonder what the maid was doing in my father's room on the night of the crime.”
“karat?” Isabel said with a change of expression. “She's the housekeeper here.”
Dominic frowned. “Why haven't I ever seen this maid, Mom?”
“Because you haven't been home for almost two years, you haven't seen one. Karat is a Thai housewife who has just been working here for less than a year. He had one child, an eighteen-year-old girl named Rose. And that is the house that father gave Karat and his daughter to live in now.”
Isabel pointed to a small house surrounded by a variety of flowering plants, which Dominik looked at every time he entered the room. Those eyes full of curiosity fixed on the picture of the small house before turning back to the mother.
“Mom, I only spoke to the police about my father's case. But…since coming back, I haven't talked to my mother about our house once. I feel like a lot has changed in the years that I haven't been here and I think there are still a lot of things that I don't know.
“Change is always happening at any time and any place. Even our home has changed. But there's something I never told you when you were in Madison. West Virginia I'm afraid it will make the child uncomfortable.”
“I've been through a lot, mom. Is there anything heavier than having to maintain a coal mine in the Appalachian Mountains?”
“There you are.” A fifty-year-old woman wrapped her arms around Dominik's face with both hands. “But it's not a serious problem for you. It was a serious problem for my mother.”
Finishing those suspicious words, Isabel lowered both her hands and looked at the small house outside the window with her eyes shining a little bravely.
“Nearly six months ago, your father accepted a new maid into our mansion. She is from Thailand, she is a widow and has one child with her. Edmund called her Karat and her daughter Rasika, whose nick name was Rose, he had the mother and daughter live in a small house in the flower garden of the mansion. A house looking from this room can see it quite clearly.”
Isabel paused and sighed, but her face held up with a hidden hint.
“Karat is a housewife who doesn't just do housework, good at taking care of food but still pampering the father of the child. It wasn't just her that was a good housewife. Even Carat's daughter, Rasika, did her job as well as her mother. That girl was trying to do whatever her father liked to satisfy him as much as possible. It was unbelievable that the two women had only been here for less than three months and the father had let them in and out of the office, living room and even the bedroom when Mother was away.”
