Chapter 1 - Thirty
My husband locked me and our seven-year-old daughter in the basement after hitting me thirty times.
He thought the door would keep his secret.
He forgot I had put a phone on the other side.
An hour earlier, Vanessa stood beneath the wine-room chandelier wearing an emerald silk dress and the diamond earrings missing from my jewelry box.
I had asked why she kept calling Julian after midnight.
One question.
That was all.
“She threatened me,” Vanessa whispered.
“I asked about the calls.”
Julian stepped between us.
“You cornered her in my house.”
Our house, I almost said.
Eleven years of marriage had taught me how expensive those two words could become.
Behind his shoulder, Vanessa smiled.
Then Penny appeared in the hallway, barefoot in pale-blue pajamas, holding her rabbit by one floppy ear.
“Mommy?”
“Go upstairs, sweetheart.”
“No,” Julian said.
“She needs to understand what happens when someone lies.”
I moved toward my daughter.
He caught my arm.
Afterward, I remembered the chandelier more clearly than his face.
I counted its lights until I couldn't focus on them.
Then I counted the blows.
Counting gave me something to do besides scream.
When Julian finally called security, I was still standing.
He seemed offended by that.
“Put her downstairs until she calms down.”
The guard, Alan, wouldn't look at me.
Penny slipped past him and ran into my arms just before the heavy basement door slammed.
“My daughter's in there,” I shouted.
The lock turned anyway.
I wrapped my torn evening cover around Penny and felt along the wall toward the old maintenance cabinet.
Years earlier, after a storm killed our cell service, I had insisted on a backup landline.
Julian called it paranoid.
Tonight, it had a dial tone.
“Marcus Reed.”
“Marcus. It's Evelyn.”
His breathing stopped for half a second.
“What happened?”
“Activate the Hart Protocol.”
He asked where we were, whether Penny was hurt, whether Julian knew about Hart Meridian or my voting control.
“He knows nothing.”
Keys clicked.
“Then he still believes Blackwood Capital is his.”
“Don't call Leo.”
“You named him in the protocol, Evelyn.”
My brother and I hadn't spoken in nine years.
I thought he had disappeared into the wreckage of his life.
“He's nearby for tomorrow's board meeting,” Marcus said.
“He's already coming.”
Then another voice joined the call.
“Evie?”
My knees weakened.
“Where's Penny?” Leo asked.
“With me.”
“Are you safe?”
I looked at the locked door.
“No.”
May you like
Above us, a floorboard creaked.
Someone had stopped outside.
