Chapter 1 - DROP THE GLASS
“Elena, don’t move!”
Marcus’s scream tore through the dining room.
Elena was on her knees on the freezing marble floor, one hand wrapped around her swollen belly, the other gripping a long, jagged shard of glass.
Blood ran between her fingers.
Across from her, Victoria Hale stood in a crimson velvet dress, breathing hard.
“You did this,” Elena sobbed.
Victoria’s lips curled into a cold smile.
“No, sweetheart. You did.”
Elena’s heart slammed against her ribs.
Five seconds earlier, Victoria had shoved her into the glass dining table.
Elena had heard it explode.
She had felt glass rain over her shoulders.
She had seen Victoria grab her by the hair and whisper, “You were never supposed to have his child.”
Now Marcus stood in the doorway.
“Elena,” he said carefully.
She expected him to attack Victoria.
To grab his mother.
To call the police.
Instead, he walked toward Elena.
“Elena, look at me.”
“Don’t come closer!”
She lifted the glass shard against her stomach.
Marcus stopped.
His face went white.
“Baby, please. Put that down.”
“She tried to kill us!”
“Who?”
Elena stared at him.
“What?”
Marcus’s voice broke.
“Who tried to kill you?”
Elena pointed.
“Your mother!”
Marcus slowly turned his head toward the opposite side of the room.
Then back to Elena.
“There’s nobody there.”
Elena froze.
Victoria stood three feet away.
Beautiful.
Calm.
Smiling.
“Marcus…”
“Elena. Please look around.”
She did.
And the world cracked open.
The dining table was intact.
Not cracked.
Not broken.
Not even scratched.
There was no blood on the marble except the thin red line dripping from Elena’s own palm.
The chairs were upright.
The crystal glasses stood untouched.
And Victoria—
Victoria was gone.
Elena sucked in a breath.
“No.”
Then she saw the chair near the fireplace.
A crimson velvet dress was lying across it.
Empty.
Like someone had stepped out of it and vanished.
Elena dropped the shard.
Marcus rushed forward and kicked it away.
She collapsed against him.
“I saw her.”
“I know.”
“She hit me.”
“I know you think she did.”
Elena shoved him away.
“Don’t say it like that.”
“Elena—”
“I felt her hands!”
Her scream echoed through the mansion.
Marcus crouched in front of her.
His eyes were wet now.
“When did you last sleep?”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Two hours last night? Three?”
“She was here!”
“Elena, Mom left yesterday morning.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“No.”
“She flew to Boston.”
“No.”
“I drove her to the airport myself.”
Elena looked back at the red dress.
Her stomach tightened.
Hard.
Painfully.
Marcus saw her expression.
“What is it?”
“The baby.”
He reached for his phone.
Then Elena noticed something on the tea tray.
Her cup.
White porcelain.
Half-full.
Beside it sat the little silver pillbox Victoria had given her months ago.
Elena stared at it.
Every morning, Victoria had placed a pale yellow vitamin beside Elena’s tea.
“For the baby,” she always said.
Elena crawled toward the tray.
Marcus grabbed her arm.
“What are you doing?”
She opened the pillbox.
Empty.
Except for powder.
A fine yellow dust coated the bottom.
Elena touched it with one trembling finger.
Marcus stared.
“What is that?”
Elena looked at him.
For the first time, fear entered his face too.
“I don’t know.”
Then a woman’s voice drifted from the hallway.
Soft.
Elegant.
Familiar.
“Marcus?”
Elena stopped breathing.
Victoria stepped into the dining room wearing a black travel coat.
And smiled.
May you like
“I thought I heard screaming.”
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