The Fall at Blackwood Manor
Chapter 01 - The Fall at Blackwood Manor
The charity dinner at Blackwood Manor was supposed to repair a family that had been quietly breaking for years. Crystal chandeliers glowed above the polished staircase, photographers waited outside, and every guest believed Maya Bennett had finally been welcomed into her husband’s wealthy family. Only Maya knew how false the smiles had become.
Near midnight, she stepped away from the ballroom after receiving a message from an unknown number: “Ask Ethan what he did with your father’s trust.” Her husband had disappeared earlier, claiming he needed to handle a business emergency. Maya climbed the stairs searching for him, but instead found Ethan’s sister, Sophie, arguing with their mother, Margaret. Both women fell silent when Maya appeared.
Maya demanded the truth. Margaret’s face drained of color, while Sophie reached for her arm and whispered that the conversation could not happen there. Before Maya could ask why, the lights flickered. A sharp crack sounded beneath her hand. The banister shifted, her heel slipped, and she tumbled down the staircase.
When Maya opened her eyes, she was lying on the marble floor, pain burning through her shoulder. Above her, Sophie and Margaret stood frozen in horror. From Maya’s position, they looked guilty—two terrified figures staring down at the woman who had just fallen.
Her phone had landed several feet away. Fighting dizziness, Maya crawled toward it and slipped it beneath the sleeve of her cardigan before anyone came closer. Sophie began descending the stairs, begging her not to move, but Maya remembered the anonymous warning. She no longer knew whom to trust.
The screen was cracked, yet one contact remained visible: Ethan. Maya pressed call.
He answered after a single ring.
“Maya?” he said, strangely calm. “Is it done?”
Her breath stopped.
Before she could respond, another voice spoke beside him—a man Maya recognized as the family’s security chief.
“No one saw me loosen it,” the man said.
Maya ended the call and closed her eyes just as Sophie reached her. In the distance, sirens began to rise. Margaret insisted she had already called for help, but Maya realized the police were coming far too quickly for an ordinary accident.
May you like
Someone had known she would fall.
And whoever planned it believed she would never wake up to tell anyone what she had heard.
