Chapter 1 - The House Without Lights
The silence after the power failed was worse than Trent's shouting.
I could hear the wood of the walking stick scrape against his sleeve, and then I heard footsteps moving toward the back door.
Not inside.
Outside.
Helen demanded a flashlight.
Nicole switched on her phone light and swept it across the floor until the beam found my face.
Trent caught the phone and aimed it away.
“Get up,” he whispered, suddenly frightened of being overheard.
I could not get up.
My left leg had gone numb, and something deep in my abdomen tightened with a pain I had never felt before.
“Alex,” I thought, as if saying his name silently could bring him through a locked door.
Then a voice carried from the front porch.
“Trent Mercer.
This is Deputy Ellis.
Open the door.” Nobody moved.
I hadn't called the police, not directly.
My emergency shortcut had contacted dispatch, and dispatch must have sent someone.
Richard rose so quickly that his coffee spilled.
“Tell him it's a false alarm,” Helen snapped.
Trent pointed the stick at me.
“You say one word and you'll regret it.” The officer knocked a second time.
“We received an emergency alert from this address.
I need to see everyone inside.” Nicole's phone light shook in her hand.
I drew one painful breath and screamed, “I'm pregnant.
I need help!” Trent lunged.
Before he reached me, the back door rattled under a hard knock.
Another voice called, calm and unmistakable.
“Emma.
It's Alex.
Tell me where you are.” My brother had come.
Trent stared toward the mudroom, calculating.
His father whispered that Alex had no right to enter.
From the porch Deputy Ellis announced he was requesting another unit and an ambulance.
The darkness had not been a miracle rescue planned by my brother; a transformer had failed on our street.
The timing had only given me a few precious seconds.
Alex kept speaking through the door, asking whether I was conscious, whether I could breathe, whether Trent was standing near me.
I answered with two words.
“Kitchen floor.” In the silence that followed, I heard Alex tell the deputy something that turned my blood cold.
“She's been trying to leave him for six months.
I have the messages.” Trent looked down at me as if I were a stranger.
And then he smiled.
“You think your brother knows everything?” he whispered.
May you like
“Ask him what he did with the letter.”
