The click of the airplane seatbelt felt unusually final as I settled into my window seat. A man sat beside me, his attention absorbed by an envelope stamped with a red ‘Confidential’ label. The print was bold enough to catch my eye, even though I was trying not to look directly at him. Date: March … Read more
It was a bitterly cold winter afternoon in downtown Chicago, the kind of day when the wind sneaks through every crack in your coat and makes the world feel just a little emptier. Most pedestrians hurried past without notice, bundled in scarves and gloves, their breaths visible in the icy air, focused on meetings, errands, … Read more
The office was small, cramped, the kind you’d miss if you didn’t know to look for it. I was there to meet Paul, the farm manager, about a discrepancy in the accounts. “It’s probably nothing,” he’d said over the phone, but his tone suggested otherwise. On the desk between us lay an old leather-bound ledger, … Read more
It was just after seven when I found myself alone in the dining room, the clock ticking softly in the background. My husband and his sister had left for what they called a ‘business dinner,’ leaving me with the new maid, Rosa, who was supposedly non-English speaking. I was organizing receipts from last month’s expenses … Read more
It had taken Isabella Trent six months to plan her escape. Six months of pretending, of smiling through bruises that no one would see, of counting every coin, every heartbeat, every moment as if it were a final warning. Time had become her enemy and her ally at once — ticking loudly on the walls … Read more
The wooden chair in the cramped office was surprisingly uncomfortable, despite its padded seat. I shifted slightly, glancing at the clock on the wall that marked 3:17 PM. Across the desk, Mr. Hargrove, the estate attorney, sifted through a pile of documents. His tie was slightly askew, a detail that seemed out of place in … Read more
The fluorescent lights flickered overhead as I lay on the hospital gurney. The nurse, unfazed by the chaos around her, methodically attached the blood pressure cuff to my arm. My husband stood beside me, fidgeting with his phone, casting nervous glances toward the door. The doctor entered, carrying a manila folder—the hospital’s logo stamped on … Read more
The bank’s fluorescent lights flickered slightly as I sat down in the quiet corner of the office, a thick envelope sitting unassumingly on the table before me. It was a Wednesday, the 15th of March, and a sense of unease settled in my stomach as I glanced at the bold letters of the account number: … Read more
The bank office was quiet, save for the soft tapping of keyboards and the occasional ring of a phone. I sat across from the loan officer, a man in his late thirties with a crisp shirt and a nameplate that read “James Crawford”. He placed a sealed envelope on the desk, its contents unknown to … Read more
The envelope crinkled in my hand as I stood in the narrow hallway of Maria’s house. I had come here to personally deliver an invitation to my maid, something I never thought I’d be doing on a Wednesday afternoon. Her house was neat, modest, with a faint smell of lavender lingering in the air. As … Read more
