Prologue..


Haylay Smith decided to do one before she headed to her work. Her husband, Josh, had left already for work. They worked at same company; one of New York’s biggest computer companies. Haylay worked with the company’s homepage, and Josh was head of department. Haylay had worked there ten years; Josh twelve.
At Haylay’s first Christmas party inthe company, she had meet Josh. Since then they had been inseparable.
Now, ten years after, they had perfectfamily life. Both had good jobs, they had a house in the outskirts of New York,with their three children; Stephen who is ten years old, Cassie, seven, andNathen five years old, and their dog, Leddi.
Stephen was the result of what happenedon the party they had first met, ten years ago.
Haylay and Josh had been married 5 years;their wedding had been a really nice, and romantic one. Haylay remembered itstill like it was yesterday.
This morning when Haylay went on herdaily jog, usually she did it in the evenings, there was a man who following her. He had done that nearly a week now,without Haylay had noticed anything. Only one time, a few days ago, when the manhad came too close to Haylay, she had told Josh when she meet him later that day,but he had just laughed at her.
Haylay soon reached Hyde Park.
There had been a few attacks there lately.
She ran here every night withoutproblems, but this morning there was something bothering her when she passedHyde Park. From there, she always ran home again. She did that this morning too.
When she came home, Leddi met her in thegarden, barked at her, and jumped around.
“Hi Leddi. Happy to see me?” Leddicontinued barking.
“Come on, Leddi, I’m going to feedyou food before I shower.” Leddi runs before Haylay to the kitchen.
Then she went straight to her closet intheir bedroom to pick out clothes for the day. She looked at the watch, and sawthat she had plenty of time before she needed to be at work, so she wanted totake a bath before going.
Just when Haylay was going to step intoher bath, she heard Leddi bark downstairs. She put on her bathrobe, and was herway downstairs when he stopped to barking again. Maybe he had only seen someoneon the street or something.
At the same Leddi was barking, someonesneaked into the house.

*

“Angela? Have you seen my wife today?”Josh asked.

“No, she isn’t here yet. Should I tryto call her?” Angela asked.
“Not necessary, I can do it myself,okay?” Josh said. Then he went into his office again to call his wife.
Josh heard signal after signal in his ear.“Where are you? I hope you’ve good reason not to be at your work yet.”
There was a knock on Josh’s door.
“Yes, who is it?” Josh asked angry.
“It’s me dad.” Stephen opened thedoor, and popped his head in.
“What’s wrong love? What happened?”Josh asked. He saw that Stephen had cried.
“Mum didn’t come to pick me up fromschool today. She promised to come with me to the dentist today,” Stephensobbed.
“When was your appointment?” Josh asked.
“I was there before I came here,” hisson answered.
“What? Have you walked through theentire New York to come here?”
“Yes, don’t be angry at me.”
“Sorry son. I’m just worried becauseyour mum hasn’t showed up here yet. She is five hours late, and the police can’tdo anything before she has been missing 24 hours. Can I drop you of with yoursister and brother at aunt Shannon’s house?”
“Yeah, so can I play with cousinAnthony, can I dad? Please.”
“Of course, that was the idea. Come onson. I’ll just tell Angela where I’m going, and that I’m not coming backanymore today, or I can do that on the way out.”
“Angela, I’m going out rest of theday.”
“Okay, Josh. Oh, you have Stephen here.How are you?”
“I’m fine, Ms Edwards,” Stephenreplied.
“You can call me Angela,” Angela said,and caressed Stephan’s cheek.
“We need to go now because we’regoing to pick up Cassie and Nathen at the day nursery. Then I’ll drop them ofat my sisters so they can play with theirs cousins while I go looking for mywife. See ya tomorrow Angela.”
“SEE YA, HOPE YOU FIND YOUR WIFE,”Angela shouted after them.
They picked up Stephen’s sister andbrother before they went to Josh’s sister.
He asked her too, if she had heardsomething from his wife, because he know they were close, so Haylay would havetold her if she had some kind of problems. Shannon hadn’t heard from Haylaysince last Saturday, so she wasn’t at any help for Josh either, but shepromised to take care of the children till he picked them up later that day.
Josh drove to their house two blocks away,parked the car, walked to the door, and locked it up. When he opened the doorLeddi came immediately, he barked, and ran around Josh.
“Leddi, what have happen? Why are youso agitated? Have you seen mommie? I wish you could speak to me,” Josh saidwhile he kneeled besides Leddi to pet him, but Leddi wasn’t calm enough soJosh could pet him. “Is there something you want to tell me?”
Josh begins to be more worried now whenLeddi acted like he did. He started to walk around the house to see if there hadhappen something.
“HAYLAY, ARE YOU HERE?” he shoutedwhile he looked around the house, but he didn’t get any answers from her. Whenhe came to the bathroom he saw it was wet on the floor, only wet steps. Herushed inside their bathroom.
“What have Haylay done now?” he said.
Then waves of disbelief, shock and horroroverpowered him when he saw his wife lying lifeless underneath the water in thetub.
“OH MY GOD, HAYLAY, NNNOOOOO….” Heran to the tub and picked her up from the water; lifeless and cold. “Haylay,no, no, please don’t let this be true… my sweet darling…” he sobbed andhis salty tears mixed with the water from the bathtub.
After a while, he carried her into thebedroom, lay her on the bed and covered her in the rose blanket that were alwaysfolded on the chair next to the bed. He kissed her cheeks and looked at her. “Myprecious… I love you…” he whispered. Then, while tears streamed down hischeeks, he picked up the telephone receiver and dialled 911.
“I need an ambulance, please,” hesaid with a shivering voice. “My wife has drowned in our bathtub…”