Chapter 1 - THE RED STAIN
Brenda Cole came at Audrey so fast that nobody at the backyard birthday table understood what was happening until the kick landed.
Not on Audrey’s belly.
On the guarded side of her hip.
Hard enough to twist her off balance.
Audrey gasped and collapsed onto the grass, one hand instinctively covering the curve of her six-month pregnancy.
“That’s what you deserve!” Brenda shouted.
For one second the party froze.
Then Preston Bennett ran.
He dropped beside Audrey and pulled her carefully against his chest.
“Audrey?”
She gripped his jacket.
“Preston…”
He looked up.
Saw Brenda.
Rage replaced fear.
“You kicked my wife?!”
He eased Audrey against a chair, stood, crossed the grass, and slapped Brenda once across the face.
Brenda staggered backward.
“Don’t touch her again!”
Then Preston turned away from Brenda immediately.
Back to Audrey.
That mattered.
Audrey winced and curled forward.
“Preston… something’s wrong.”
His anger vanished.
She touched the inside of her thigh, then lifted trembling fingers.
A small dark-red stain marked the tips.
Nothing graphic.
No visible wound.
Still enough to terrify both of them.
“Please,” Audrey cried. “Call an ambulance—my baby!”
Preston already had his phone out.
Brenda went pale.
“I didn’t—”
Preston did not look at her.
He held Audrey close while calling for help.
The birthday music had stopped.
Children were hurried inside.
Someone brought towels.
Then Audrey’s phone buzzed on the grass.
Brenda saw the screen before Preston did.
A message.
FROM: MASON REED
I TOLD THEM YOU NEVER APPROVED THE TRANSFER.
Brenda stared at it.
Then looked at Audrey.
Her face changed from horror to something stranger.
“You told Mason?”
Audrey, shaking, whispered:
“Told him what?”
Brenda backed away.
“You’re still pretending?”
Preston turned.
“What is she talking about?”
Brenda pointed at Audrey’s phone.
“The reason I came after her.”
Audrey looked at the message.
Then at her sister.
“I don’t know what transfer he means.”
Brenda laughed once.
Broken.
“You expect me to believe that?”
Sirens approached in the distance.
Audrey looked again at Mason’s message.
May you like
Mason Reed was the CFO of the company she and Brenda had built together.
And Audrey had not spoken to him in three weeks.
