Chapter 4
At that exact moment, my phone screen lit up.
A message from Richard popped up.
Richard's message read, [Julia, smile. I'm watching you.]
I glanced up at the camera in the corner of the living room and couldn't help but smile.
I went back to that salon again.
As I pushed the door open, I hesitated for a second.
Lily was there again.
As soon as she saw me, she flashed a smile.
"Mrs. Lane," she greeted.
Lily smiled and said, "We keep running into each other lately."
I smiled, not saying a word.
As Lily was leaving, an access card slipped from her hand and fell to the floor.
It was pure black.
There wasn't even a logo.
Just a series of silver numbers printed in the bottom right corner.
There was also an address.
I needed to check one thing.
With Susan's help, I rented a villa on the west side of the city.
I had cameras installed all over the place.
Richard still came home on time, went for his morning run, and went to work, everything was just like before.
The croissant still had that same familiar taste.
It was so peaceful, like nothing had ever happened.
Until a month later.
A black car, so discreet it barely drew any attention, rolled in.
The windows were tinted so dark you couldn't see inside.
Richard got out, headed straight into the villa, and came back out soon after.
Lily came out of the villa.
They walked into the underground garage, one after the other.
The car pulled out slowly from the villa complex.
I held my breath, my heart pounding.
I made a beeline for the villa they'd come out of.
I knocked, but there was no one around, no servants, no bodyguards.
It was a smart lock, no camera at all.
I tried Richard's birthday. No luck.
Lily's birthday. Still nothing.
Finally, I punched in the code we always use at home.
The door swung open.
The couch, the curtains, the decorations, everything was arranged as if someone had copied my home down to the last detail.
The scent in the air was identical to the one in my own house.
I stood there, and for a moment, I couldn't even tell where I was.
I pushed open the master bedroom door.
His shirts hung in the closet, right next to a woman's clothes.
In the bathroom, the toothpaste, the cups, even the way everything was arranged, all of it was exactly how he liked it.
There was another room at the very back.
It was like his office had been perfectly recreated here, a carbon copy in every way.
The wall color, the furniture arrangement, not a single detail was different.
Our wedding photo hung high on the wall, identical in size, frame, and image to the one in his office.
My eyes landed on the desk in the center of the room.
It was massive, with so much empty space underneath that someone could easily curl up there.
The edges and wooden surface of the desk were covered in dense, jagged scratch marks.
Some were deep, some were shallow, all overlapping, grooves from someone's fingernails, clear as day.
Beyond the perfectly copied office, there was a hidden door.
With a gentle push, it swung open.
Inside was a dimly lit room, the air so thick it was hard to breathe.
In the center stood a massive bed, and every wall was lined with mirrors.
Layer upon layer of reflections in the mirrors made my head spin.
In the corner stood a wooden horse, with whips scattered nearby.
There were all kinds of weird, unfamiliar things all over the floor, a whole mess of stuff I'd never seen before.
I'd only ever come across things like this in those freaky novels.
My breath caught in my throat.
I slowly backed out until I reached the landing by the staircase.
Suddenly, I heard the sound of a door unlocking from outside.
And then voices.
Without thinking, I slipped into the storage room under the stairs.
It was Lily's voice.
She spoke softly, with a bit of a whine.
"My hair color matches your wife's now, doesn't it?" Lily asked.
Richard gave a one-word reply.
"Yeah," Richard said.
It was barely a whisper.
You couldn't tell what he was feeling at all.
The silence hung in the air for a moment.
Then Lily's voice broke the quiet.
"Oh, by the way, I think I'm pregnant again," Lily said.