The first chapter was published under the title: The Child Who Was Never Alone

In a penthouse designed to predict every need, danger goes unnoticed.

A child laughs at what no one else can see.

A mother holds on to a memory shaped like a ring.

As luxury, control, and fear fold into each other, silence becomes a language of its own — and something ancient listens.

The first chapter opens a world where protection is unreliable, love is mythologized, and not everything that guards a child has a name.

Read it here.

Scene - Whitley's Martyrdom

 Whitley experiences domestic violence.

Excerpt from the first chapter: The Child Who Was Never Alone ...

"That evening, she feels her mother’s silence settle into her bones. It moves. She senses her unease. A way she doesn’t understand. Children mirror before they comprehend.
She learns her lessons without language.
At first, the colorful lights. They don’t always arrive with the one who lives in the corners.
Then, the second, the small comet appears, now weak. With a talent, nothing but distraction.
Ashley jerks upright in her crib, gripping the bars, laughing as the comet hops along. The kid never catches. She reaches for it, delighted.
She doesn’t hear the sounds behind the walls.
Dull thuds.
Vibration in the floor.
Shouting.
The smell of sweat.
Fear.


“You makin’ a fool outta me in front of my friends?”


A crash.
The woman screams.


The apartment’s AI speaks, calm and velvet-soft.
“Litty, I’m receiving alarming readings. How you feels?”


Something scrapes across the floor.


“My hair!” Whitley cries.


“Litty, please respond. Anything I arranged for you?”


“Open the safe!”


Silence.


Then Toby’s voice, cold and pleased.
“Next time, you gonna remember what now means? You learn your lesson?”


“Yes,” the fallen diva sobs. “I’m sorry.”


“I implied instructions,” the AI repeats.


“No—” A breathless plea. “Not the ring. You got the money. Leave the ring.”


Slaps crack, broken glass. The air falls cold. The dark goodness’s whimpers fill the space between them.


“Should I call 911?” the AI guessed.


Toby explodes.
“What about the ring? Huh? Why you so hung up on that thing? This how you thank me? You owe me everything. The kid ain’t enough? Even the ring more important than me?”
Every word lands with a blow.


“I wait for command,” the AI insists."

Scene - Ashley's supernatural experience

 Ashley Austin, almost two years old, has a supernatural event in her nursery.

Excerpt from the first chapter: The Child Who Was Never Alone ...

"[Whitley] perched alone in the media room, robe pulled tight, coffee untouched, eyes locked on the security wall. Footage scrolls in obedient silence. Corridors. Elevators. Party guests laughing, staggering, kissing their reflections. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

Normal.

Her manager stops by, loud shoes, louder concern. He talks about press windows, brand insulation, or how last night... Not leak if handled right. Whitley nods where nodding belongs. When he leaves, she rewinds.

She never sees it.

She misses the moment when the camera in the nursery records Ashley laughing at something out of frame. The mother misses how the two-year-old pulls herself upright. She climbs the security railing with impossible balance. Misses how the child balances on tiptoe, arms stretched forward, as if held by invisible hands.

The video shows nothing holding her.

Ash giggles, jumps—and instead of falling, glides back into the crib, slow and gentle, a leaf drifting home.

By the time Whitley scrubs back again, the feed looks harmless. Empty. Forgettable."

Whitley Austin

Whitley Austin 

- 

Rising pop star and young mother, in her early 20s.

Cover image

 Cover image for the book

Ashley Austin, aged 7, finds a friend.

Wallpaper

Burning Mask of the Union Jack 

- 

The image does not refer to any specific scene in the story, it only underlines the dystopian development of the story.