Chapter 1
The brake pedal sank to the floor.
Nothing. No resistance at all.
I stamped on it again, harder.
Still nothing.
The car was a hollowed-out shell, completely out of my hands, tearing down the midnight switchbacks like a wild animal toward the edge of the cliff.
The speedometer needle jerked and climbed.
Rain came at the windshield in thin needles.
The whole world blurred into a smear of pale light.
I'm going to die.
I should have been terrified. But the first thing that flashed through my mind wasn't the design portfolio I'd bled years into, or that cold Ravenel mansion.
It was Posy.
My six-year-old daughter.
She'd cried herself sick tonight, refusing to sleep, because the nightmares had come back. She'd clung to the hem of my dress, those little eyes wide with fear.
"Mommy, are you going to disappear into the study forever, like Daddy?"
I'd only smiled, smoothed her hair, and made her a quiet promise.
"Never. Mommy's not going anywhere."
And now that promise was about to become a lie.
My hand groped across the passenger seat.
My phone.
I found it through the blur of tears.
It was my lifeline. The last trace of me I could leave for Posy.
My fingers stabbed at the screen and dialed the one name I trusted most in the world.
Alaric.
My husband.
I didn't even have time to think before the scream tore out of my throat.
"Alaric! The brakes are gone — I can't stop it — I have to get back, Posy's waiting for me—"
The call connected.
But there was no panic on the other end. No frantic shout.
Just the slick, wet sound of breathing, thick with wine.
And laughter.
That low, loose, flirtatious laugh.
"That junk car of hers really was overdue for a trade-in, Alaric."
A woman's voice.
Ice flooded through me. For one second I forgot I was about to go off a cliff.
That was Delphine's voice.
My personal assistant.
My closest "friend."
"You promised me, didn't you? After tonight, this house belongs to us. Just us."
Delphine's voice carried that sweetness I knew so well.
Sugar with poison stirred in.
I held my breath.
The tires shrieked through the curve. The whole car was shuddering now.
But I couldn't even feel death anymore.
All I felt was something inside me being torn in half.
The line went quiet for a moment.
Then Alaric spoke.
Not the gentle husband.
Not the man who used to drape his coat over my shoulders.
His voice was low, cold, with a cruelty that raised the hair on my arms.
"Don't worry about it."
"She's driving up to the summit tonight to watch the fireworks."
"Her last little bit of romance."
He paused, as if savoring the taste of the words.
"As for the kid…"
"Delphine's right. She looks too much like her mother."
My heart seized as if a fist had closed around it.
He meant to hurt Posy too?
"The police will write it off as an accident."
"Worn brakes. Wet road."
"And it'll all be over."
Every word drove into my bones like a rusted nail.
I watched the tree line stream past the window.
And finally, I understood.
Five years of marriage I'd fought to hold together.
Everything I'd poured myself into.
From the very beginning, it had all been one thing: a plan to get rid of us.
I was the obstacle between him and everything he wanted.
And Posy was the loose end he needed erased.
Posy.
My Posy.
I had to live.
If only to make that monster pay.
The car burst through the guardrail.
For one instant, gravity took everything.
I wrenched my head around, toward the rearview mirror.
There, in the blind corner, in the dim light at the roadside.
A familiar silhouette stood beneath the trees.
He lit a cigarette.
The flame threw light across a face gone utterly cold.
He didn't call for help.
He didn't run toward me, didn't try to save anything.
He just stood there, watching my car drop like a dead leaf into the dark.
He watched me the way you'd watch a bag of trash tossed off a ledge.
The car slammed into rock.
The windshield exploded.
Rain poured in, tasting of blood.
I felt my body coming apart.
The dark ate my vision, inch by inch.
But I kept my eyes locked on that silhouette.
I watched him turn and take Delphine's hand.
Neither of them looked back. Not once.
And in that moment, a hatred vast and bottomless as the ravine below took root in my shattered heart.
My daughter.
I can't die. The thought of Posy sent a wave of pure animal will crashing through me.
Even if I have to come back a devil. Even if I come back a ghost.
I will crawl back to that house.
And I will take my daughter back from every last one of you.
BANG.
The car hit the bottom.
The world went silent.