Chapter 2

The next morning arrived with deceptive normalcy. Sunlight streamed through our kitchen windows, illuminating the breakfast table where Richard sat reading the Globe, his coffee steaming beside a perfectly arranged plate of eggs Benedict. He looked every inch the devoted husband—crisp white shirt, tie loosened just enough to suggest casual intimacy, his dark hair still damp from his shower.

But I couldn't stop seeing those three lines from his notebook. Remove nanny obstacle. The words had haunted my sleep, turning over and over in my mind like a broken record.

"You're quiet this morning," Richard observed, glancing up from his paper. His smile was warm, concerned—the same expression that had made me fall in love with him two years ago. "Everything alright?"

I forced myself to meet his eyes, searching for any hint of the calculating stranger who had written those notes. All I saw was my husband, looking genuinely worried about my well-being.

"Just tired from last night," I managed, taking a sip of coffee that tasted like ash in my mouth.

The sound of small feet thundering down the stairs interrupted us. Leo burst into the kitchen, his dark hair sticking up at odd angles, clutching his iPad like a lifeline. At ten years old, he was all energy and curiosity, a miniature version of Richard with my stubborn streak.

"Morning, Mom. Morning, Dad." He climbed onto his chair and immediately powered up his device, fingers flying across the screen with the expertise only children seemed to possess.

Richard's jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. "Leo, you know the rules about screens at breakfast."

"Just five more minutes?" Leo pleaded, not looking up from whatever had captured his attention. "I'm watching this really cool video about—"

"Now, Leo."

The sharp edge in Richard's voice made both Leo and me look up. My husband's face had transformed, the warm concern replaced by something harder, more controlled. It was an expression I'd seen him use with difficult constituents, but never with our son.

Leo's lower lip jutted out in the beginning of a pout, but he obediently set the iPad aside. "Fine. But Dad, can we go to that place with the volcanoes and ice? It looks so cool. They have these huge waterfalls and—"

"Leo." Richard's voice cut through the air like a blade. The coffee cup in his hand rattled against the saucer as he set it down with unnecessary force. "We are not going to Iceland. Ever. I don't want to hear another word about it."

The kitchen fell silent except for the hum of the refrigerator. Leo's eyes went wide, confusion and hurt flickering across his young face. I felt my own breath catch in my throat.

Iceland. Leo had said Iceland.

"I... I was just asking," Leo whispered, his voice small and wounded.

Richard seemed to realize how harshly he'd reacted. His expression softened, but the damage was done. "I'm sorry, buddy. Daddy's just stressed about work. We'll talk about vacation plans later, okay?"

Leo nodded mutely, picking at his cereal with obvious reluctance. The easy morning atmosphere had shattered, leaving awkward fragments in its wake.

Richard stood abruptly, checking his watch. "I need to get to the office early today. Maggie, can you handle Leo's school drop-off?"

"Of course," I said automatically, though my mind was spinning. How did Leo know about Iceland? We'd never discussed it as a family destination. Richard had been adamant about that from the beginning of our relationship.

Richard kissed the top of Leo's head, then mine, his lips lingering a moment longer than usual. "Have a good day, you two. I love you."

The words should have been comforting. Instead, they felt like a performance, lines delivered by an actor who'd forgotten his motivation.

After Richard left, I sat across from Leo, studying his downcast face. "Hey, sweetheart. Where did you hear about Iceland?"

Leo shrugged, not meeting my eyes. "I don't know. Maybe school?"

But his voice carried that particular note children get when they're not telling the whole truth. I'd heard it often enough in my years as an ER doctor, when kids tried to explain how they'd really gotten injured.

"Can I see your iPad for a minute?"

Leo's grip tightened on the device. "Why?"

"Just curious about what you were watching."

Reluctantly, he handed it over. I opened his browser history, expecting to find a trail of YouTube videos about volcanoes or travel documentaries. Instead, I found nothing. The history had been completely cleared.

My pulse quickened. Leo didn't know how to clear browser history. He barely knew how to delete photos.

"Leo, did someone help you use this yesterday?"

"No," he said quickly. Too quickly.

I navigated to his photos, looking for any clues about what he might have been researching. Most were typical ten-year-old fare—screenshots of games, funny memes his friends had shared, pictures of our dog. But buried in the camera roll, I found something that made my blood run cold.

A folder labeled "Dad's Trip" that I'd never seen before. When I tried to open it, a password prompt appeared.

My hands trembled as I stared at the screen. Someone had created a password-protected folder on my son's iPad. Someone had been showing him content about Iceland. Someone had then cleared his browser history to cover their tracks.

And the only person with regular access to Leo's iPad was Richard.

"Leo," I said carefully, "do you know the password for this folder?"

He shook his head, but his eyes darted away from mine. "Dad said... Dad said it was a surprise. That I shouldn't tell you about it yet."

The kitchen seemed to tilt around me. Richard had been planning something involving Iceland, something he was keeping secret from me, something he was involving our ten-year-old son in. The same Richard who had written "Remove nanny obstacle" in his private notebook.

I handed the iPad back to Leo with steady hands, though inside I was screaming. "Finish your breakfast, sweetheart. We don't want to be late for school."

As Leo returned to his cereal, I sat in the morning sunlight, surrounded by the trappings of our perfect life, and realized I was living with a stranger. A stranger who was planning something that involved my son, involved Iceland, and somehow involved removing obstacles.

The question that terrified me most wasn't what Richard was planning.

It was whether I was the obstacle he intended to remove.