Chapter 1
I was eight months pregnant when I collapsed beside the kitchen table, and my husband calmly placed $15,000 in front of me and said, “Taxi money.” That was the moment I finally called my father.
I had been wiping down the dining table in our home outside Boston when the pain hit.
It was so sharp I dropped the cloth and grabbed my stomach.
“Daniel,” I gasped.
My knees buckled.
He walked into the kitchen, looked at me on the floor, and didn’t even bend down.
Instead, he took an envelope from his jacket.
He dropped it onto the table beside me.
Cash spilled out.
“What is that?” I whispered.
“Fifteen thousand.”
I stared at him.
“Call yourself a taxi.”
For a second, I thought the pain had made me misunderstand him.
“I’m eight months pregnant with your baby.”
Daniel sighed.
“And I have somewhere I need to be.”
I looked toward the suitcase sitting near the front door.
That suitcase hadn’t been there an hour earlier.
“Where are you going?”
He avoided my eyes.
Then his phone lit up on the counter.
A message appeared.
I only saw one sentence.
Is she gone yet?
My hands went cold.
“Who is that?”
Daniel grabbed the phone.
“It doesn’t concern you anymore.”
Anymore.
That word hurt worse than the contraction.
I slowly pulled my wedding ring off.
Daniel finally looked at me.
“What are you doing?”
I threw the ring into the trash.
“You’re right.”
His face changed.
“This doesn’t concern me anymore either.”
I reached for my phone.
Daniel laughed.
“Who are you calling? Your friends?”
“No.”
I pressed the number I hadn’t called in almost three years.
“My father.”
Daniel stopped smiling.
Everyone in Boston knew my father’s name, but Daniel had spent our entire marriage believing I had been cut off from him.
The call connected.
“Dad,” I whispered, fighting another wave of pain.
There was silence.
Then my father said, “Tell me where you are.”
Daniel suddenly rushed toward me.
“Emily, hang up.”
I looked him straight in the eyes.
“Too late.”
May you like
My father’s voice came through the speaker again.
“And Emily… don’t sign anything Daniel puts in front of you. I found out what he’s been trying to do with your inheritance.”
