Chapter 1
My husband slapped me in front of our eight-year-old daughter, then forced my head toward the bathroom sink. He never noticed Lily running for the phone—or realize who she was calling.
My name is Emily Carter, and I lived outside Chicago with my husband, Ryan, and our daughter, Lily.
That night, Ryan came home angry because dinner wasn’t ready.
“I told you I had to take Lily to the doctor.”
“I don’t care.”
Before I could walk away, he slapped me.
Lily screamed from the hallway.
“Daddy, stop!”
Ryan pointed toward her.
“Go to your room.”
She didn’t move.
Then Ryan grabbed me and pushed me into the bathroom.
“Ryan, let me go.”
He forced my head down toward the sink.
“You want to embarrass me? Look at yourself.”
I fought to pull away.
Behind us, Lily disappeared.
Ryan assumed she had obeyed him.
She hadn’t.
She ran upstairs, locked herself inside my bedroom, and grabbed my phone.
The first person she called was Ryan’s father.
“Grandpa?”
Robert Carter answered immediately.
“Lily? Why are you crying?”
“Daddy hit Mommy.”
There was a pause.
Then Robert’s voice changed.
“Where are you?”
“At home.”
“Lock the door and stay there.”
Downstairs, Ryan finally released me.
I leaned against the wall, shaking.
Then headlights swept across our windows.
Ryan frowned.
“Who’s here?”
A black SUV stopped outside.
Then another.
The front door opened moments later.
Robert walked in with two security men behind him.
Ryan went pale.
“Dad?”
Robert saw my swollen cheek.
Then he looked toward Lily, who had come running downstairs.
“Grandpa!”
She threw herself into his arms.
Robert handed her to one of the guards.
Then he walked straight toward his son.
“You did this in front of my granddaughter?”
Ryan backed away.
“Dad, Emily started—”
Robert struck him and sent him stumbling to the floor.
When Ryan tried to get back up, the two guards stepped between us and kept him away from me.
“You’re finished,” Robert said.
Ryan stared at his father.
“You’re choosing her over your own son?”
Robert looked at me.
“No. I’m protecting my daughter-in-law and granddaughter from a man I should have stopped years ago.”
An hour later, Robert took Lily and me to his house.
I thought the nightmare was finally over.
But after Lily fell asleep, Robert placed an old envelope in front of me.
“I owe you the truth about Ryan.”
Inside were photographs, police reports, and a letter written by a woman I had never met.
I looked at the date.
It was from six years before Ryan and I married.
May you like
Then I saw the final line in the letter.
If anything happens to me, Ryan Carter did it.
