Chapter 1 - The Hand on My Stomach
The first pain hit while Cassandra Vale was smiling at me.
Not a polite smile. Not a nervous one.
A satisfied smile.
I was standing in the center of the thirty-seventh-floor executive lobby of Cole Meridian when my stomach tightened so hard I had to grab the edge of a white marble table.
My other hand went straight to my belly.
My baby kicked once.
Then stopped.
“Emily?” Adrian said.
My husband was six feet away in a gray suit, one hand still holding the folder he had been arguing about five minutes earlier.
Cassandra stood behind me in a pale fur coat, perfectly calm.
I forced air into my lungs.
“I’m fine.”
I wasn’t.
My lower back burned. My palms were damp. There was a strange bitter taste in my mouth that had been there since lunch.
Adrian moved toward me.
“What happened?”
I looked at him.
Then I looked at Cassandra.
She had brought me the tea.
She had insisted I drink it.
And ten minutes later, she had whispered something in my ear while Adrian was taking a call.
You should have left him when you had the chance.
My fingers tightened over my stomach.
“She knows exactly what happened,” I said.
Cassandra’s smile barely moved.
Adrian turned toward her.
“What does that mean?”
Before she could answer, the stainless-steel elevator chimed.
The doors slid open.
Victor Cole stepped out.
Adrian’s father had not been expected in New York until the following week. He was sixty-eight, broad-shouldered, silver-haired, and still carried himself like the room belonged to him before he entered it.
Nobody spoke.
Victor’s eyes went from me to Adrian.
Something in his face changed.
Cassandra laughed once.
Two security officers moved toward her.
Victor didn’t answer him.
My throat went dry.
When he opened them again, the anger was gone.
Cassandra took one step backward.
Victor finally looked at her.
“That’s why I came.”
Victor reached inside his coat and pulled out a sealed evidence bag.
My heart stumbled.
Cassandra went pale.
Victor looked at me before he answered.
“Something that should never be given to a pregnant woman.”
The elevator chimed again behind him.
This time, two paramedics rushed out with a stretcher.
May you like
And just before they reached me, Cassandra whispered three words that only I heard.
“He won’t believe you.”
