Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN IN THE BATHROBE
Jessica drove with both hands locked around the steering wheel.
She had changed into clothes Colleen found in a suitcase inside the car: jeans, a sweater, sneakers.
No jewelry.
No purse.
No phone.
Colleen sat beside her.
“You have somewhere safe to go?”
Jessica laughed once.
It sounded broken.
“No.”
“Family?”
“He made sure I didn’t have one anymore.”
Colleen looked at her.
“What does that mean?”
Jessica kept driving.
“My sister stopped speaking to me twelve years ago.”
“Why?”
“Because Robert told her I didn’t want her in my life.”
“And you believed that?”
“I never even knew she was calling.”
Colleen stared.
Jessica’s jaw tightened.
“He controlled the house phones.”
“My email.”
“My accounts.”
“My driver.”
“My schedule.”
“Every person around me was either paid by him or afraid of him.”
They stopped at a red light.
Jessica looked down at her shaking hands.
“I tried leaving twice.”
“What happened?”
“The first time, he froze every credit card before I reached the airport.”
“The second?”
Jessica went quiet.
“Jessica?”
“My dog disappeared.”
Colleen felt cold.
“He told me accidents happen when wives become selfish.”
The light changed.
Jessica drove again.
Colleen looked back.
A black SUV had turned behind them.
Two blocks later, it was still there.
“Do you know that car?”
Jessica checked the mirror.
Her face went white.
“Robert’s security.”
“Keep driving.”
“I can’t outrun them.”
“Then don’t.”
Colleen pointed ahead.
“Turn right.”
Jessica obeyed.
“Where are we going?”
“My neighborhood.”
“That’s the first place they’ll look.”
“No.”
Colleen watched the SUV stay behind them.
“They’ll look for you in wealthy neighborhoods, private clubs, luxury condos.”
She glanced at Jessica’s designer sweater.
“They won’t look for Robert Langford’s wife in my sister’s basement in Queens.”
Twenty minutes later, they pulled behind a narrow brick house.
Colleen rushed Jessica inside.
Her younger sister, Maya, opened the door wearing sweatpants and holding a coffee mug.
She looked Jessica up and down.
“Colleen, why is Jessica Langford standing in my kitchen?”
“You recognize her?”
“She’s been on magazine covers.”
Jessica flinched.
Maya immediately softened.
“What happened?”
“Long story.”
Maya locked the door.
“Then tell it downstairs.”
They were halfway to the basement when headlights swept across the living room.
Colleen moved toward the curtain.
A black SUV stopped across the street.
Jessica whispered, “They found us.”
Then Colleen’s phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
She opened the message.
A photograph filled the screen.
It showed Colleen standing in the penthouse with the mop raised.
May you like
Below it were six words.
YOU SHOULD HAVE STAYED OUT OF THIS.
