Chapter 1
My husband beat me with a mop until I collapsed because I refused to sign our house over to him. I managed to call my father and say four words before my husband ripped the phone away.
I had been staring at the papers on our kitchen table for almost twenty minutes.
“Just sign them, Sarah,” my husband, Ryan, said.
I looked at the line where my name was supposed to go.
The documents would remove me from ownership of the house my father had helped me buy before Ryan and I were married.
“I’m not signing this.”
Ryan’s face changed instantly.
“You’re my wife.”
“That doesn’t mean I give you my house.”
He slammed his hand against the table.
“My house too.”
“No. You moved into it after we got married.”
For a second, neither of us spoke.
Then Ryan reached behind the pantry door and grabbed the mop.
I actually thought he was trying to scare me.
Until he swung it.
The handle hit my shoulder so hard I stumbled into the counter.
“Ryan!”
“SIGN IT!”
He hit me again.
I raised my arms over my head.
“Stop!”
Another blow caught my back.
Then another.
I tried to run toward the hallway, but he stepped in front of me.
“You think you can embarrass me?”
“I’m not giving you the house!”
That answer made him even angrier.
He kept swinging until my knees gave out beneath me.
I fell beside the kitchen island and couldn’t make my legs obey me.
Ryan stood over me breathing hard.
“Now are you ready to sign?”
My phone was still in my pocket.
With shaking fingers, I pulled it out and called the first person I knew would come.
My father.
He answered immediately.
“Sarah?”
My voice broke.
“He’s hitting me.”
Ryan’s eyes widened.
He lunged forward and ripped the phone from my hand.
“You stupid—”
He ended the call.
Then he threw my phone across the kitchen.
The screen shattered against the wall.
“You just made this much worse.”
I dragged myself backward as he reached for the papers again.
Then someone started pounding on the front door.
Not knocking.
Pounding.
Ryan froze.
A second later, my father’s voice thundered from outside.
“Sarah! OPEN THIS DOOR!”
Ryan looked at me.
Then at the broken phone.
Then at the ownership papers on the table.
May you like
And suddenly, instead of opening the door, my husband grabbed the documents and whispered something that terrified me more than the beating had.
“Your father can’t find out whose name is already on the second deed.”
