Chapter 3
Despite everything, she laughed.
Dominic almost smiled.
Then her expression changed.
“And if I don’t come back?”
He forced himself to answer.
“Then I never mention this again.”
Something shattered downstairs.
Voices rose.
Anthony, apparently, had returned.
Sophia stepped away.
Dominic opened the bathroom door.
Before she passed him, he caught her hand.
“One more thing.”
She turned.
“Stop letting anyone convince you that being loved is a reward you earn by becoming less.”
Her eyes filled again.
Then she left.
Dominic remained alone in the bathroom, staring at the closed door.
For the first time in twenty years, the most feared man in his family realized there was something he wanted that power could not simply give him.
Sophia had to choose him.
And by morning, he would discover she had far bigger reasons to run from Anthony than either of them knew.
Part 2
Sophia did not sleep.
She sat in the kitchen of the townhouse she shared with Anthony until sunrise, still wearing Dominic’s jacket.
Anthony never came home.
At 6:17 a.m., his phone lit up on the counter where he had forgotten it.
A message preview appeared.
Can’t wait for the appointment today. Baby was kicking all night.
Sophia stared at the screen.
For several seconds, she didn’t understand.
Then another message appeared.
Do you think she knows yet?
The sender was Lauren.
Sophia knew Lauren.
Everybody knew Lauren.
Lauren Whitaker worked in Anthony’s investment office downtown.
Twenty-eight.
Blond.
Funny.
Always touching Anthony’s arm during parties.
Sophia had once asked if anything was happening between them.
Anthony had laughed until Sophia apologized.
Her hands began shaking.
She unlocked his phone.
His passcode was their engagement date.
That humiliation felt almost artistic.
There were hundreds of messages.
Hotel reservations.
Photographs.
Plans for a nursery.
A sonogram.
Lauren was twenty-two weeks pregnant.
Twenty-two weeks.
Sophia sat on the floor.
Something inside her became very quiet.
She didn’t cry.
Not at first.
She scrolled backward.
Anthony complaining about Sophia.
Her weight.
Her forgetfulness.
How easy she had become to control.
One message stopped her.
Changed the pills again. She barely notices anything lately.
Sophia read it three times.
Then she ran upstairs.
Her medication stood beside the bathroom sink.
White bottle.
Her name.
Her doctor’s name.
Prescription label.
Everything looked normal.
Except Anthony had been collecting the refills.
Anthony had been handing her the pills.
Anthony had been watching her swallow them.