Chapter 1 - THE VOICE BESIDE MY BED
Elise heard Richard before he touched her.
His shoes made almost no sound on the private hospital room’s polished floor, but she recognized the pause after the door closed. Richard Morgan always waited half a second before entering any room completely, as though giving the air time to understand that it belonged to him now.
Beyond the windows, foghorns sounded across Baltimore Harbor. Elise could not see the lights reflected on the black water. Both of her eyes were sealed beneath layers of gauze, protective shields, and white bandages that wrapped around her head. Cuts crossed her cheek and temple. Every heartbeat sent a fresh pulse through the fractures around her left eye.
She remained still beneath the hospital blanket.
Richard approached the bed.
He wore the same expensive cedar-and-citrus cologne he had worn at Pier Nine before the alarms began. The scent reached her a moment before his fingers closed around her jaw.
He squeezed hard.
Pain tore through the injuries in her face as he forced her bandaged head toward his voice.
Elise gasped. “Let go of me.”
Richard leaned close enough that she felt his breath against her mouth.
“Look at you,” he said with a cruel smile she could hear. “You can’t even see me.”
His thumb pressed into the bruise beneath her cheekbone.
For three days, doctors had warned Elise to avoid pressure near the orbital fractures. Richard knew. He had personally moved her into the hospital’s most expensive room and told the staff he was protecting his stepdaughter from reporters.
Now he used that privacy like a locked door.
He shoved her against the pillow.
The back of her head struck the raised bed. Elise bit down on a cry. Richard pointed at the thick bandages over her eyes, though the gesture was wasted on her.
“No judge will believe a blind freak.”
Her body began to tremble.
Richard mistook the movement for fear.
Beneath the blanket, Elise slid her free hand toward her right hip. The hospital gown had no pocket, but a smartphone lay between the mattress and her thigh. A nurse had left it there exactly twenty minutes earlier.
Richard bent over her again, enjoying what he believed was helplessness.
“You saw nothing,” he whispered.
Elise’s thumb found the phone’s ridged side button.
She pressed it three times.
A soft vibration answered against her palm. No chime. No spoken confirmation. The screen remained dark.
The recording activated.
Her trembling stopped.
Richard noticed.
The mattress shifted as he straightened. “Why are you smiling?”
Elise slowly turned her bandaged face toward the sound of his breathing.
A faint smile touched her split lip.
“Because you’re right.”
His breathing changed.
“What?”
“I couldn’t see you…”
Elise drew the phone from beneath the blanket.
Richard went silent.
Somewhere outside, beyond the hospital glass and the dark harbor, a siren began to rise.
Richard moved toward the phone.
Elise lifted it beyond his reach and pressed the nurse-call button with her other hand.
The siren grew louder. Then another joined it. And another.
“What did you do?” Richard asked.
The arrogance had gone from his voice.
Elise calmly raised the phone toward him.
“But everyone can hear you now.”
More sirens surged near the harbor.
May you like
Elise remained completely calm beneath her eye bandages.
Richard stared at the phone. His eyes widened, and his mouth fell open in horror.
