Chapter 1 - THE GIFT TABLE
Brenda had Audrey by the hair before anyone understood what was happening.
One second, the baby shower was full of champagne glasses, white roses, and people laughing under the chandeliers.
The next, Brenda Hale drove her pregnant daughter-in-law sideways into the gift table.
Audrey hit the edge hard enough to knock wrapped boxes to the floor.
She curled around her belly before she even cried out.
“Please!” Audrey gasped.
Brenda leaned close enough for only her to hear.
“This child must not be born.”
Across the room, Rocco Bellini turned so fast his chair crashed behind him.
“Dad!” Audrey screamed.
Rocco reached her before the bodyguards did.
He pulled Audrey behind him, one arm shielding her while his other hand caught Brenda’s wrist.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Brenda tried to reach around him.
Audrey was shaking.
“She’s trying to make it look like an accident.”
Rocco’s face changed.
Every conversation in the ballroom died.
Preston stood ten feet away.
Audrey looked at her husband.
“Preston?”
He didn’t move.
Brenda lunged again.
Rocco grabbed her by both shoulders and threw her backward into the same gift table.
Two guards stepped between them before she could get up.
Guests backed away in horror.
Gary Moretti, Rocco’s oldest friend, pushed through the crowd with a phone in his hand.
“Rocco.”
“Not now.”
“You need to hear this now.”
Rocco turned.
Gary looked at Brenda, then at Preston.
“She wasn’t planning this alone.”
Audrey stopped crying.
Preston finally lifted his head.
Rocco saw fear in his son-in-law’s face.
Not shock.
Fear.
Gary held up the phone.
“I pulled the ballroom cameras.”
“One camera was shut off thirty seconds before Brenda touched Audrey.”
Rocco’s voice went low.
“Who shut it off?”
Gary tapped the screen.
A grainy image appeared.
May you like
Preston was standing beside the control panel.
And his hand was on the switch.
