The afternoon had begun ordinarily enough, Marcus finishing a long business meeting downtown before finally returning home to the Delacroix estate, eager for a quiet evening after weeks of demanding travel. He had no reason to suspect anything unusual awaited him beyond the mansion's grand entrance, his mind still occupied with lingering thoughts from the day's negotiations.
As he approached the mansion's ornate French doors, he noticed movement inside the foyer that immediately struck him as unusual. Through the glass panels, he could see his wife Veronica standing rigidly over someone crumpled on the marble floor, her posture carrying an intensity that unsettled him even before he fully understood what he was witnessing.
He pushed through the doors quickly, the sharp sound of a slap echoing across the foyer just as he entered, drawing his immediate, startled attention toward the scene unfolding before him. A young woman lay sprawled across the polished marble, her hand pressed against her stinging cheek, tears streaming rapidly down her face.
"My husband!" Veronica exclaimed, her voice shifting instantly from cold fury into practiced, theatrical relief at his sudden arrival. Marcus paused near the entrance, confusion evident in his expression as he registered the strange, unsettling scene playing out in his own home.
"What is going on here?" he demanded, his footsteps echoing sharply against the marble as he crossed the foyer with growing, uneasy confusion.