The Evil Housemaid

In the glass-and-stone silence of the Oregon coast, order is not a preference-it is a religion.Elena thought the Blackwood estate was a sanctuary for her husband Marcus as he succumbed to a mysterious, hollow illness. But when Agatha arrives from an exclusive agency to provide "discreet domestic management," the sanctuary becomes a clinical cage. Agatha doesn't just clean; she purges. One by one, the "messy" remnants of Elena's life-the colorful pillows, the family dog, the very air they breathe-are replaced by a terrifying, sterile precision.As Marcus is "preserved" into a marble-like effigy, Elena realizes the bitter-almond scent of Agatha's tonics is the smell of a slow-motion execution. With the gates locked and the lines dead, Elena is no longer the mistress of the house-she is the final smudge to be erased.How far will Elena go to stain a masterpiece of perfection, and what happens when the only way to survive is to become the monster that polishes the blade?