House on Pine Terrace by Phillip Margolin

Prepare for edge-of-your-seat suspense in this Thriller Short.

This be-careful-what-you-wish-for Thriller Short from bestselling author Phillip Margolin tells what happens when a cop meets the man of her dreams, who lives in the house of her dreams. Monica Esteban grew up poor, on occasion helping her single mother clean houses. That’s when she first saw the big white house on Pine Terrace. Her mother called her princess and told her that one day she would marry a rich prince and live in a castle. The castle she dreamed of was the big white house. But that would never happen on a cop’s salary. At least that’s what she thought until she received an inconceivable dinner invitation from the most unlikely man imaginable. Dinner is everything she hoped it would be. Dan Emery is a perfect gentleman, making the next two months pass like a fairy tale...until her dream comes to an end and she finds out just how much it costs to live in the big white house on Pine Terrace.

Originally published in THRILLER 2 (2009), edited by No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Clive Cussler.