Chapter 1
Ryan whipped me with his belt and laughed.
“Who’s going to save you now, Emily?”
The leather struck my shoulder.
Pain burned across my skin, but I refused to scream.
That was what he wanted.
He wanted to see me break.
Ryan stepped closer, breathing heavily. His expensive white shirt was stained with whiskey. His eyes looked empty.
“You embarrassed me in front of my own family,” he said. “You think you can walk away from me?”
“I told the truth.”
“You called me a thief.”
“You stole money from my father’s company.”
His smile disappeared.
For one second, fear crossed his face.
Then rage replaced it.
Ryan raised the belt again.
My fingers closed around the ruby on my wedding ring.
He believed the ring had belonged to my grandmother.
He had never known what was hidden inside it.
I pressed the stone.
A tiny red light blinked beneath my finger.
The emergency transmitter was active.
Ryan did not notice.
He grabbed my hair and pulled my head back.
“Your father can’t protect you forever.”
I looked into his eyes.
“You’re right.”
Ryan smiled.
Then I caught his wrist.
I twisted his arm, drove my knee into his stomach, and slapped him across the face with everything I had.
Ryan fell against the coffee table.
The belt dropped from his hand.
He stared at me in shock.
“You hit me?”
“You’ll never touch me again.”
He lunged forward.
Before he reached me, the front door exploded open.
Wood crashed across the floor.
My father entered first.
Colonel Daniel Carter had been retired from the Army for six years, but he still moved like a man entering a battlefield.
Four members of his security team followed him.
Ryan turned toward the back door.
He made it three steps.
Dad caught him, spun him around, and punched him across the jaw.
Ryan collapsed.
Dad pinned him to the floor.
“You put your hands on my daughter?”
Ryan tried to cover his face.
“It was an argument!”
Dad forced his arms behind his back.
One of the security officers secured Ryan’s wrists.
“That ring is a live emergency transmitter,” I said. “It recorded everything.”
Ryan stopped struggling.
His face went pale.
Dad looked at the marks on my arms.
Something changed in his expression.
He was no longer an officer.
He was a father staring at the person who had hurt his child.
“How long?” he asked.
I could not answer.
Ryan laughed weakly from the floor.
“She’s lying. Emily hurts herself when she gets emotional.”
Dad’s fist tightened.
I touched his shoulder.
“Don’t.”
He looked at me.
“If you hit him again, he’ll use it against us.”
Sirens sounded outside.
Dad’s team had alerted the police the moment my signal activated.
Ryan twisted his head toward me.
“You planned this.”
“No,” I said. “I survived it.”
Two police officers entered the house.
They photographed my injuries and took the belt as evidence.
Ryan suddenly began shouting.
“Ask her father why he gave her that ring! Ask him what his company really does!”
Dad froze.
It lasted less than a second, but I saw it.
So did Ryan.
Ryan smiled through the blood on his lip.
“There it is,” he whispered. “He never told you.”
“Told me what?” I asked.
Dad stood.
“Not now, Emily.”
Ryan began laughing again as the officers pulled him upright.
“He built that transmitter for more than family emergencies.”
“Be quiet,” Dad warned.
“Your perfect father has been watching you for years.”
The police led Ryan toward the door.
He looked back at me.
“You think tonight ended your nightmare?”
His smile returned.
“It just started.”
After he was gone, Dad wrapped his coat around my shoulders.
I wanted to feel safe.
Instead, I kept thinking about the fear I had seen in his eyes.
“Dad, what was Ryan talking about?”
He glanced at his security team.
Nobody spoke.
Then Dad looked at the broken front door.
“We need to leave.”
“Why?”
“Because Ryan wasn’t working alone.”
A sound came from upstairs.
Slow footsteps moved across the bedroom floor.
Everyone in the room went silent.
Dad raised one hand.
His security team drew their weapons.
Ryan had been downstairs with me.
May you like
Someone else was still inside the house.
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