Chapter 1 - The Fall
Vanessa's palm hit my shoulder hard enough to erase the ground beneath my feet.
One second I was gripping the iron railing outside the house Ryan and I had built together. The next, I was falling.
Stone slammed into my hip, my back, then my shoulder. I twisted without thinking, both arms wrapping around my twenty-eight-week belly.
"No. No, no, no."
I stopped three steps from the driveway.
Pain ripped across my abdomen.
"Baby, move for me," I whispered. "Please, sweetheart. Just move."
A heel clicked above me.
Vanessa Cole came down slowly, smoothing the silver bracelet Ryan had bought her in Miami while he told me he was at a client retreat.
She crouched beside me.
"You should've been more careful, Emily," she whispered. "A fall like that can end very badly."
I stared at her.
"You pushed me."
Her mouth curved.
Then the front door opened.
For one stupid, desperate second, relief flooded me.
"Ryan!"
My husband stepped outside.
He saw me curled on the stone. He saw the blood on my palm. He saw me holding our daughter through my dress.
Then he looked at Vanessa.
He walked straight past me.
"Are you okay?" he asked her.
Vanessa grabbed his arm and started shaking as if she were the victim.
"She went crazy. She found the messages and started screaming. I tried to stop her from leaving."
"She's lying," I gasped. "She pushed me."
Ryan finally looked down.
His expression wasn't fear.
It was calculation.
"Emily," he said quietly, "you fell."
Headlights swept across the driveway.
My sister Maya jumped from her car before it fully stopped.
"Oh my God! Emily!"
She ran to me and called 911 while Ryan kept repeating that I had slipped.
When the paramedics arrived, one knelt beside me.
"Ma'am, did you fall on your own?"
I looked straight at Vanessa.
"No. She pushed me."
Ryan cursed under his breath.
As they lifted me onto the stretcher, I looked back at the porch.
That was when I saw the small black security camera beneath the roofline.
Its lens pointed directly at the steps.
And for the first time since I hit the stone, I felt something other than fear.
I felt hope.
May you like
Then Ryan followed my stare.
And the color drained from his face.
