CHAPTER 1: THE HOUSE THAT STOPPED BREATHING (Short Version)
Ethan Parker came home early from a business trip expecting to see his wife Hannah and their newborn son, Owen.
What he found instead made his stomach drop.
The house was filthy. Plates everywhere. The TV blaring. Patricia and Courtney asleep on the couch like nothing mattered.
From the bedroom came a weak baby cry.
Ethan rushed in.
Hannah was sitting on the bed, barely conscious, holding Owen tightly while he cried in exhaustion.
And his mother’s voice cut through the room:
“If caring for a baby is this hard for you, maybe you shouldn’t be a mother.”
Hannah didn’t respond. She looked completely drained.
Ethan froze when he saw bruises around her wrists.
“What happened?” he asked.
Patricia calmly replied, “She’s clumsy.”
Courtney added, “She can’t even handle a baby.”
Ethan looked at his wife—then at his son—and realized something was deeply wrong.
“I’m taking them to the hospital,” he said.
Patricia laughed. “For being tired?”
Ethan didn’t argue.
He picked up Hannah and Owen.
And walked out before he saw anything else that might break him.
Because what he was starting to see…
May you like
wasn’t carelessness.
It was something worse.
