Chapter 1 - The Fall
The first thing I heard was my wife scream.
Not my name. Not help. Just one raw, terrified word.
“No!”
I looked up in time to see Claire tipping over the second-floor balcony.
For half a second, my mind refused to understand what my eyes were seeing. One moment she was standing beneath the crystal chandelier in her pale pink maternity dress, one hand resting on the curve of her seven-month belly. The next, she was folding over the black iron railing, her blonde hair flying forward, both arms reaching for nothing.
And behind her stood my mother.
Evelyn Mercer.
Perfect posture. Platinum hair. Metallic evening gown. One hand still lifted in the air.
“Claire!” I shouted.
The room exploded around me. Glasses hit the marble. Someone screamed. A violin stopped mid-note. I ran.
Claire fell from the balcony just as I reached the center of the foyer. I dropped hard to my knees and threw both arms up. I did not catch her cleanly. No one could have. Her shoulder struck me first, then her weight drove us both onto the marble. Pain shot through my back, but I wrapped myself around her before her head could hit the floor.
She was breathing.
That was all I cared about.
“Claire. Look at me.”
Her blue eyes opened, wide and unfocused. Her fingers clutched my lapel.
“My baby,” she whispered.
“Our baby is okay until someone tells us otherwise. Stay with me.”
She pressed one trembling hand to her stomach.
I looked up.
My mother was still on the balcony.
People stared at her now.
Not at Claire.
At her.
I pulled out my phone with one hand. “Security. Now. And call an ambulance.”
Claire grabbed my wrist.
Her breath came in short bursts.
“She was behind me.”
I bent closer. “What?”
Claire’s eyes lifted toward the balcony.
“She put both hands on my back.”
The foyer went silent again.
I looked up at my mother.
Her face changed.
Only for a second.
Then she called down in a calm voice, “Nathan, she slipped.”
I had heard that tone my entire childhood. The tone she used when she had already decided what everyone else was supposed to believe.
I rose just enough to put myself between Claire and the staircase.
“Don’t come near my wife again.”
My mother’s jaw tightened.
Then the head of security appeared beside me, pale and shaken.
“Mr. Mercer,” he said quietly, “you need to see the balcony camera.”
I stared at him.
May you like
He swallowed.
“Because someone disabled it three minutes before your wife fell.”
