Chapter 3
At 12:47 a.m., Elena called Juliana Howard—her attorney, her oldest friend, the only person she trusted not to tell Marcus where she was going.
“I need help,” Elena said quietly.
Juliana didn’t ask questions. “I’ll have a car there in thirty minutes.”
By 1:35 a.m., a discreet black SUV waited in the underground garage.
Elena packed like she was evacuating a war zone. Medical files. Passport. Laptop. Prenatal vitamins. Clothes that would fit her changing body. Twenty-two thousand dollars in cash from her personal account—money Marcus didn’t monitor because he’d never imagined she’d need to run.
Before she left, she wrote the letter.
Her hand shook as she placed her wedding ring in the crib—a symbol that once meant forever, now just expensive metal marking the death of something that should have lasted.
Sienna stood near the elevator, mascara streaked, hands twisted together.
“Elena, please—”
Elena turned.
For one strange moment, Sienna looked exactly like the little sister Elena had protected from school bullies, loaned money to after college, comforted through bad breakups. The girl who’d cried at Elena’s wedding and said she wished she could find someone who looked at her the way Marcus looked at her sister.
Elena stepped forward and hugged her.
Sienna froze, shocked.
Elena whispered against her ear, “I hope whatever you wanted from him was worth losing me forever.”
Then she stepped into the elevator.
The doors closed.
Sienna stood motionless in the empty apartment, tears streaming down her face.
Then, slowly, the tears stopped.
She pulled out her phone and dialed.
A man’s voice answered. “Status?”
Sienna stared at the closed elevator doors. “She’s gone.”
“And Marcus?”
“Still at the hotel.”
May you like
The voice on the other end—smooth, paternal, satisfied—made a small sound of approval. “Perfect. Make sure he believes this was entirely his fault.”
Sienna ended the call and stood alone in her sister’s apartment, surrounded by evidence of the family she’d just helped destroy.
