Chapter 1 - TEN SECONDS
“Hit your wife with this belt, David.”
The words had barely left my father-in-law's mouth when a thick strip of leather slapped the dinner table.
Twenty relatives stared at us from Robert Miller's crowded living room.
My husband went pale.
His mother dropped a serving spoon.
And Robert smiled as if he'd just announced dessert.
“Go ahead,” he told his son.
“Show Emily who's in charge.”
I was twenty-eight, newly married, and wearing the same blue sweater I'd worn on our honeymoon drive home.
I taught physical education at a public high school outside Chicago.
What Robert didn't know was that I'd trained in taekwondo for twelve years and won a national college tournament.
He thought my silence meant I was scared.
David lifted the belt because his father ordered him to.
“David,” I said quietly, “put it down.”
Robert barked, “Don't listen to her.”
My husband raised his shaking hand.
I saw the strap move.
I stepped aside, caught his wrist, and guided the belt away from my body with the smallest movement I could make.
The buckle struck the table instead of me.
Plates rattled.
A few guests jumped to their feet.
David stumbled against a chair, stunned more by my speed than by any pain.
Robert lunged toward me.
I moved between him and Susan and held one open palm out.
“Stop,” I said.
“Right now.”
I hadn't kicked anyone.
I hadn't thrown a punch.
But Robert suddenly looked like a man who'd lost something he thought he owned.
A cousin near the fireplace whispered, “She did that in two seconds.”
Robert pointed at me.
“Everybody saw her attack my son!”
Then he reached behind the framed photograph of David's grandfather and tilted a tiny security camera toward us.
A red light blinked.
Robert's smile returned.
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“Perfect,” he said.
“Now I've got what I need to make her pay.”
