Chapter 1 - HONEY
Jessica Blake shoved Elena Carter’s wheelchair toward the staircase.
Hard.
The front wheels dropped over the first step.
Elena’s stomach lurched.
“No! Stop!”
The chair slammed downward.
One step.
Then another.
Her rigid neck brace kept her head from whipping freely, but the impacts still tore through her shoulders and spine.
She clamped both hands around the armrests.
“HELP ME!”
Jessica remained at the upper landing.
Watching.
The wheelchair bounced again.
Then a man appeared below.
Harrison Carter.
Elena’s husband.
His face changed from confusion to horror.
“Elena!”
He sprinted upward.
The chair struck another step.
Harrison threw both hands onto the frame.
Caught it.
The force drove him backward one step, but he planted his feet and held.
Elena pitched toward him.
He braced the chair with his body.
“Honey! Are you hurt?!”
Elena stared at him.
Harrison pulled the wheelchair onto the lower landing and crouched beside her.
“Baby, why are you here?”
She grabbed his white shirt.
“She pushed me.”
Harrison’s head snapped upward.
Jessica was descending slowly now.
Her confidence had vanished.
She stared at Harrison’s hands around Elena’s shoulders.
Then at his face.
“Did you just call her honey?”
Harrison froze.
Jessica stopped one step above them.
“Why are you calling her that?”
Elena looked from Jessica to Harrison.
Something was wrong beyond the obvious.
Jessica had not expected tenderness.
She had expected contempt.
Harrison stood.
“Jessica, don’t come closer.”
Jessica’s face twisted.
“You said you couldn’t stand touching her.”
Elena stopped breathing.
Harrison went pale.
Jessica laughed once, almost hysterically.
“You said this marriage was dead.”
Elena’s fingers loosened from Harrison’s shirt.
Harrison whispered:
“Elena…”
She looked at him.
“Who is she?”
Jessica answered before he could.
“Ask your husband.”
May you like
Then hospital security burst through the stairwell door.
And Harrison’s silence told Elena that the woman who had just tried to send her down a staircase was not a stranger.
