I tried to turn my face away, to avoid the heat radiating from him, but he surged forward. His fingers, calloused and rough, clamped around my wrist with the force of a vice. With a sudden, brutal jerk, he slammed my shoulder back against the metal door. The impact sent a jar of pickles rattling…
Problems didn’t exist in Bennett’s world. They were merely inconveniences to be bought, bullied, or buried. And for twenty years, I had been his most difficult “problem.” I’d stayed through the whispered threats and the physical reminders of his ownership because he had built a fortress of legal entrapment around me. The prenuptial agreement was…
That night, the air in the ballroom of the Pierre Hotel was thick with the scent of expensive lilies and old money. It was the Vane Foundation Winter Gala. I stood beside him, a prop in a silk emerald gown, forcing the smile that I had practiced in the mirror for an hour. “Smile, Isabella,” he whispered, leaning…
“I’m up,” I gasped, the words tumbling out in a breathless rush. “Ryan, please, my back…” “I don’t care about your back,” he sneered, his face inches from mine. The smell of stale whiskey and morning breath washed over me. “You think you’re special? You think carrying a kid gives you a pass to be…
“We need to talk about money,” Veronica announced, not bothering with any greeting or acknowledgment of the baby sleeping peacefully just feet away. She pulled a folded paper from her purse and waved it in my direction, her movements jerky and manic. “I’m planning an anniversary party for myself and Travis. We’ve been married ten…
Five minutes later, the doorbell rang. It wasn’t the aggressive chime of a solicitor or the hurried tap of a delivery driver. It was two precise, melodic notes. Familiar. Measured. Professional. I opened the door to find Dr. Elaine Monroe standing on my porch. She didn’t look surprised to see me. She didn’t gasp or stumble back…
“Jake…?” I whispered. “She was outside,” he said quickly, breathless. “Near the bus stop. She fell down. I tried to help her up, but she couldn’t stand. She kept saying she couldn’t remember anything.” I stepped forward and touched the woman’s hand. It was icy—unnaturally cold. Her skin felt fragile, almost unreal. “I can’t remember,”…
So when a traveling merchant spoke of opportunities beyond the valley—of factories rising, of money earned fast—Daniel listened. And when Clara begged him to wait, just one more season, he kissed her forehead and said words that still haunted him. “I’ll come back a different man.” Then he left. The world beyond the valley was…
Um, but there I was, standing in the driveway of the home I’d lived in for 30 years, grocery bags at my feet, staring at new locks on my front door. Andrew, I called, pressing the doorbell that suddenly sounded foreign to my ears. Andrew, the door won’t open. Movement behind the curtains. Then his…
At the far end, positioned near the window as if he were merely a piece of outdated furniture, sat my grandfather, Ephraim. The man who had carved a vineyard out of the Colorado dirt, the man who had built the fortune that fueled every decadent glass of champagne in the room, was now confined to a…