Chapter 1 - THE BEDROOM WITH NO KEY
Emma Kane knew she was not resting.
She was being contained.
The difference was difficult to explain over the phone.
“Margaret says the doctor wants you off your feet,” Lucas had told her from New York.
“My doctor said reduced activity.”
“That sounds like off your feet.”
“No, Lucas. It sounds like reduced activity.”
He had sighed.
In the background, Emma heard men talking in a conference room.
Kane Capital was trying to refinance nearly four hundred million dollars of debt before a lender deadline. Lucas had been sleeping four hours a night.
Emma knew the timing was terrible.
Margaret knew it too.
That was the problem.
“Your mother took my car keys,” Emma said.
“Because you almost fainted in the garage.”
“I got dizzy.”
“You’re eight months pregnant.”
“She also told the doorman I can’t leave without security.”
Lucas went quiet.
“Did she?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll call her.”
“You said that yesterday.”
“I am in the middle of a restructuring.”
“And I am in your bedroom feeling like a prisoner.”
He lowered his voice.
“Emma.”
There it was.
The tone that meant please be reasonable while I handle the important thing.
She hated how much it still worked.
“I need you home.”
“I’ll be back Friday.”
Today was Wednesday.
Emma closed her eyes.
“Fine.”
After the call, she tried the penthouse service elevator.
A security man named Cole stepped in front of it.
“Mrs. Kane, I’m sorry.”
“Move.”
“Mrs. Kane—”
“Move.”
He did not.
Emma returned to the bedroom.
Her legs already hurt.
Two days earlier, she had tried to leave through the private garage after finding a folder in Margaret’s study labeled PRENATAL CONTINUITY.
Security stopped her.
There had been grabbing.
Struggling.
A stumble against a bench.
Margaret later called it an “incident.”
Now purple bruises covered both legs.
Emma had photographed them.
Then Margaret took her phone “until she calmed down.”
Emma still had an old tablet hidden inside a drawer.
On it, she had sent one message to Lucas.
Please come home before they make me sign something.
He had not answered.
That night Emma heard Margaret and Richard Hale talking outside the bedroom.
Richard said:
“If she signs voluntarily, this is cleaner.”
Margaret answered:
“And if she doesn’t?”
A pause.
Then Richard:
“We use Lucas.”
Emma sat up.
Her hand went to her belly.
The baby moved.
May you like
And for the first time, Emma stopped wondering whether the papers were about her.
They were about the child.
