Chapter 1 - The Scream Behind the Door
I heard Nora scream before I even got my key all the way into the lock.
It was the kind of scream that made every thought in my head disappear.
I shoved the front door open so hard it slammed into the wall.
“Nora?”
Something crashed in the living room.
I ran toward the sound and stopped dead.
My wife was eight months pregnant. She was pressed against the bookcase with one arm wrapped around her stomach. Her cheek was red. Her lower lip trembled. My sister, Madison, stood three feet away with her hand raised again.
My mother was beside the coffee table.
My father was standing in front of the hallway like a guard.
And none of them looked surprised to see Nora crying.
Madison looked annoyed.
“You’re home early.”
I stared at her raised hand.
“What did you do?”
“She’s being dramatic,” Mom said quickly.
Nora made a sound that was half sob, half laugh.
“Dramatic?” she whispered.
I crossed the room and stepped between her and my family.
“Tell me what happened.”
Madison dropped her hand. “She refused to sign.”
“Sign what?”
Dad’s jaw tightened. “Ethan, don’t turn this into something ugly.”
I looked at Nora again. There was a dark red mark on her forearm where someone had grabbed her.
“It’s already ugly.”
Nora pointed toward the coffee table.
A stack of papers sat beside a pen and a mobile notary stamp.
I picked them up.
The first page said FAMILY VOTING PROXY.
The second page made my stomach drop.
It transferred Nora’s temporary voting authority over the Cole Legacy Trust to Madison until our unborn daughter turned twenty-one.
I read the number twice.
Forty-eight percent of Cole Biomedical.
Not cash.
Control.
My grandfather had founded the company, but I had always been told my father held the deciding block of shares.
Apparently, he didn’t.
Apparently, my unborn daughter did.
I looked at Madison.
“You hit my pregnant wife because she wouldn’t give you control of the company?”
“She was going to ruin everything,” Madison snapped.
“How?”
“She doesn’t understand our family.”
Nora’s voice shook. “Your father locked the front door. Your mother took my phone.”
I turned slowly.
Mom went pale.
Dad said, “We were trying to keep everyone calm.”
“You trapped her in my house.”
“Our house,” Dad corrected.
I almost didn’t understand the words.
Then he added, “We paid the down payment.”
I laughed once, without humor.
“Get out.”
Mom’s eyes widened. “Ethan.”
“Get out of my house.”
Madison stepped closer. “You’re choosing her over us?”
I moved so fast she flinched.
“I’m choosing the woman carrying my child over the people who just attacked her.”
Nora grabbed my sleeve.
Her face had changed.
The anger was gone.
Now there was only fear.
“Ethan.”
I turned.
She looked down.
A dark wet stain spread across the front of her dress.
“My water just broke.”
May you like
And behind me, my father whispered one sentence that I would spend the next year wishing I had never heard.
“Then we’re already too late.”
