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I know what you did.

I had been ignoring these texts for two weeks.

Cryptic, taunting messages from unknown numbers.

I thought it was a prank, someone messing with me.

It didn’t take long for me to realize this wasn't some kind of perverse joke.

Whoever was texting my phone seemed to take great joy in my misery and paranoia, like we were playing a game.

Are you ready?

The latest message glared back at me as I sat on the Crawfords’ couch, scrolling through Netflix in an attempt to drown out my thoughts.

They were deviating from their usual taunts, and that worried me.

I looked toward the staircase and listened for any signs of movement.

I had tucked Esther in two hours ago, so she should have been sleeping peacefully, tucked under her pink quilt with her stuffed bunny, oblivious to the dark, messy world adults lived in.

She didn’t deserve to grow up in a house of lies. I didn’t deserve to be sitting there.

The Crawfords were at some fancy convention dinner, their lives perfectly polished to match their immaculate home.

Gianna was nothing but warmth and the kind of kindness I swore couldn’t be real.

Mickey had the effortless charm of your typical CEO.

They were a gorgeous couple. Only I knew the cracks beneath the surface.

Or maybe I was the crack, the irreparable blot in their picture-perfect life.

My phone buzzed again, forcing me back to my current reality.

1224310704

You’ve been tagged.

“Tagged?” I shook my head with a bitter laugh and backed out of the thread as another text came in, refusing to read it.

I was on the verge of losing my mind. I tossed the phone onto the coffee table and stood up, needing to move, to do something other than sit there.

I headed for the kitchen, my thoughts windmilling.

How could anyone know my secret unless I told them?

Mick certainly wasn't going to announce he'd fucked me all over this house for seven of the eight months I had been babysitting his six-year-old daughter.

And there was no way Gianna was aware of anything.

She would've taken him to the cleaners, and I would be out of a job that came with room and board.

I grabbed a glass and filled it from the sink.

The cold water was heavenly as it slid down my throat, but it didn’t wash away the creeping sense of anxiety.

I needed to pull myself together. I tilted my head back and ran my hand through my hair, freezing when I heard a light tapping sound.

I swiftly turned, eyes darting to both doorways.

“Esther?”

I took a slow step forward, my bare feet shuffling over the polished floor. The tapping came again, a little shorter this time, followed by a soft thud.

“Es, is that you?”

Getting no response, my grip on the glass tightened. Was someone in the house? No, that was impossible.

The Crawfords' security system was set to alert when any door or window opened and announced when someone was approaching. If anyone were inside with me, they would've had to of been here almost all day. I waited expectantly for the sound to come again, sighing when the silence stretched.

“Get a grip,” I whispered harshly.

All of this is because someone may have miraculously uncovered my deceit.

Regret gnawed at me, guilt right on its heels.

Neither was strong enough for me to end the arrangement with Mickey.

I was under no illusions when it came to our relationship.

One day we would have to stop, but if I had my way, it wasn’t going to be anytime soon because although I did feel a bit guilty, the pros outweighed the cons.

Sex was off the charts. The extra padding in my bank account was a nice bonus, too.

Mick wasn’t close to ending what we had either.

He loved the thrill of it all, his perfect wife and slutty mistress under one roof.

There were shared looks when we all ate dinner.

Sometimes when they were having a pool day, he’d find an excuse to come inside, and then we’d fuck fast and hard in my bathroom.

More often than not, he crept into my room at night while Gianna was sleeping right down the hall. We made a game of how quiet I could be.

I knew the ever-regal Ginna Sterling wasn’t letting him fuck her ass.

I gave him all the things she wouldn’t and never pressured the man to leave her for me.

I wasn’t a fool. Mick wanted to get his dick wet with his kid’s nanny, not blow up his life.

I didn’t mind that at all. It was a win-win situation for both of us right now.

I wasn’t going to let some rando behind a screen ruin it for me.

I turned to set the glass down, and the tapping came again. This time it was much closer than before. I whirled around.

“Esther, if that’s—.” The rest of my words got lost in a gasp.

A person was standing halfway across the kitchen, dressed in all black with their face covered by a pale mask.

My breath hitched. All the reasoning I’d just done that no one could be inside the house, made a cruel mockery of common sense.

I stepped back, my hands scrambling behind my back for anything that would help me.

“What do you want?” I yelled at them, my voice trembling.

They canted their head, the motion slow and deliberate.

In their hand, a knife caught the light, sharp and gleaming.

The person tapped it against the doorframe only once this time, and I belatedly realized they had been doing some sort of countdown.

Terror crashed into me. I turned and ran, skirting around the counter to get back to the living room.

Find the phone.

Hide.

Call for help.

But when I reached the coffee table, it wasn’t there.

A low whistle came from behind me. I spun around, my mind racing as two dark voids locked eyes with mine.

The knife in their hand spun lazily between their fingers like a toy.

My pulse thundered in my ears. Every instinct screamed at me to bolt for the front door.

The only thing that stopped me was Esther.

I couldn’t leave that little girl to fend for herself.

“What do you want?” I asked again, forcing a calmness into my tone that I didn’t feel.

They stepped forward, circling the couch slowly. Refusing to allow them to get close, I took off for the stairs.

"Esther!" My voice broke, panic strangling my words as I stumbled up the steps.

My feet slipped on the hardwood, nearly sending me sprawling.

I caught myself on the banister. Behind me, rapid footsteps followed.

I was two stairs from the top when they grabbed my shirt and yanked me back with brutal force.

"No!" I screamed, my fingers grasping at the railing as I twisted around. The banister dug into my spine as I tried and failed to fight them off, their knife sinking into my side.

The pain was instant, white-hot, and blinding.

My body curled instinctively around the wound, blood seeping through my fingers.

They pulled the blade out and let me go, watching as I stumbled up the remaining steps.

I barely made it before my legs began to tingle and buckle.

A whimper tore from my throat when they gave out, and I hit the floor.

The person following me stopped and stared, watching as I began to crawl, my arms trembling as I dragged myself forward.

Every inch felt like an eternity. My head swam, my vision flickering in and out.

Just get to her door .

It was illogical, and I didn’t know what I expected would happen once I did, but at that moment, all I could think about was getting to Esther.

I was so close, nearly there, when a second person appeared at the end of the hallway.

Their mask was different, but just as nightmarish, features twisted into a grotesque grin I could just barely make out as my vision dimmed.

They came toward me in what seemed like slow motion and crouched down, their voice a distorted taunt.

“Did you really think you’d get away?”

My head was yanked back, and I felt a stinging sensation in my scalp. I was too weak to fight, but I tried anyway, my fingers feebly clawing at their wrist.

“Why?” The word slipped from my lips, barely audible.

“Because you lose.”

The blade pressed to my chest, the tip cold and biting.

They shoved the knife into me inch by inch.

The pain was searing, but it faded as quickly as it came, replaced by a cold numbness that spread like ice through my veins.

The last thing I saw was Esther’s door creaking open, her stuffed bunny tumbling into the hall, its ears flopping awkwardly as it hit the floor.