Chapter 1 - THE DEVICE IN MY HAND
The first thing I heard was the pen rolling across granite.
The second was Victoria Whitmore’s heel crushing it against the kitchen floor.
“Pick up another one,” she told her husband.
The words came from somewhere over my left shoulder. Since the bandages had been wrapped around my eyes three days earlier, I had learned to build rooms from sound. The chandelier hummed above the island. The refrigerator breathed behind me. Rain tapped the tall windows overlooking the Whitmore lawn.
And two people who had called me family stood close enough for me to smell Victoria’s gardenia perfume and Charles’s cedar cologne.
I braced both palms against the polished granite. My torn cream blouse clung to the dressing beneath my shoulder. Every movement pulled at the cuts along my cheek. The doctors had said my sight might return after the swelling eased. They had refused to promise how much.
Daniel had not answered any of my calls since the accident.
His parents said that was because he had finally understood what I was.
“We can do this without making a scene,” Charles said.
Paper slid beneath my fingers. The top page was thick, expensive, and embossed. I could not read it, but Victoria had already told me what it was.
An annulment petition.
According to her, Daniel wanted me erased from his life before our third wedding anniversary at midnight.
I heard Charles uncap a second pen.
“Where is Daniel?” I asked.
Victoria laughed softly. “Still pretending that matters?”
Then her hand closed around the back of my hair.
She yanked so hard that pain flashed white behind my bandages. My hip struck the granite island, and my breath left me. Before I could steady myself, Victoria forced my upper body down against the cold stone.
“Stop!” I cried.
Charles seized my right wrist and slammed my hand onto the papers.
“Sign the annulment!” he shouted.
The chandelier crystals trembled above us.
I twisted blindly, but Charles was stronger, and the kitchen gave me no direction except pain. Victoria held my hair in one fist and pressed between my shoulder blades with the other. The granite dug into my ribs.
Charles forced the pen between my trembling fingers.
“No,” I breathed.
Victoria bent until her lips were beside my ear.
“You can’t even see what you’re signing.”
Her amusement frightened me more than her grip. These were not people losing their tempers. They had dismissed the staff. They had prepared the documents. They had waited until I was injured, medicated, and alone.
Charles curled his hand over mine and dragged the pen toward the page.
“Sign it and disappear!”
The pen touched paper.
I drove my elbow backward. Victoria cursed and shoved me harder against the island. Charles torqued my wrist until my fingers began to open.
Then the kitchen doors struck the wall.
Fast footsteps crossed the marble.
Charles’s grip vanished first. A heavy impact followed, then his startled shout. Victoria released my hair with a gasp as someone forced her backward.
“GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY WIFE!”
Daniel.
For half a second, I could not move.
All week, I had imagined his voice saying he believed me. I had also imagined it reading the accusations his parents had placed in my hospital room. Now it was here—raw, furious, and close.
My knees gave way.
Daniel caught me before I reached the floor. One arm circled my waist while his other hand protected the back of my bandaged head. I clutched the lapel of his dark suit, shaking so violently that my teeth clicked.
“Daniel…”
He drew me tightly against his chest. His heart was racing.
“I’ve got you,” he said, so quietly that I almost missed it.
Across the kitchen, Victoria struggled to recover her breath.
“She has been lying to you,” she snapped. “Put her down.”
Daniel’s arm tightened around me.
I heard Charles rise beside the island. “You have no idea what she did.”
Daniel did not answer either of them.
Instead, his hand moved between us. Something small and hard touched my palm—a smooth black object no larger than a car key. He folded my trembling fingers around it.
Charles heard the faint click against my wedding ring.
His tone changed.
“What did you give her?”
Daniel ignored him.
Victoria took one careful step closer. For the first time since she had entered the kitchen, I heard uncertainty in her breathing.
May you like
Daniel kept one arm locked around me. He lowered his mouth to my ear while his parents stared at the object hidden in my fist.
Then he whispered, “Press it.”
