Chapter 1
“You’re cheating on Mommy!”
Sophie’s scream stopped me in the hallway.
I had come home early because her school had canceled afternoon activities, but Ryan’s car beside Jessica’s should have warned me something was wrong.
I stepped into the living room just as my seven-year-old daughter shoved Jessica away from her father.
Jessica was Ryan’s assistant.
And Ryan had just been kissing her.
Sophie’s face was red with tears.
“You said you loved Mommy!”
Ryan looked around wildly.
He had not seen me yet.
“Sophie, stop.”
“No!”
She pushed Jessica again.
Ryan slapped our daughter.
The sound cracked through the room.
Sophie fell onto the carpet.
Everything inside me went cold.
“Don’t touch Jessica!” Ryan shouted.
I crossed the room before he could turn.
My hand struck his face hard enough to send him stumbling backward onto the couch.
“That was for Sophie.”
Ryan stared at me.
“Emily?”
Jessica screamed and grabbed my hair.
I twisted free, slapped her hand away, and shoved her backward onto the same carpet where my daughter had fallen.
“Get away from me.”
Ryan jumped up.
“You’re insane!”
He charged toward me.
I drove my knee into his stomach.
Ryan doubled over with a gasp.
Sophie ran into my arms.
“Mommy!”
I dropped beside her.
Her cheek was already turning red.
“Please don’t let Daddy hit me again.”
My heart broke.
“He never will.”
Ryan straightened slowly.
“You’re throwing away our marriage over one mistake?”
“One?”
I pointed at Sophie.
“You hit your own daughter because she caught you cheating.”
Jessica tried to speak.
“This isn’t what you think.”
I laughed.
“I watched you kissing my husband.”
Ryan stepped toward me.
I raised my phone.
“Try touching either of us again.”
He stopped.
Then I took his wedding ring from the coffee table where he had apparently removed it before Jessica arrived.
I threw it through the open front door.
Their coats followed.
Jessica stared at me.
“You can’t throw me out.”
“I absolutely can.”
I pushed the door wider.
“Both of you. Outside.”
Ryan refused.
“This is my house.”
“No. My grandmother left me this house before we married.”
His face changed.
He knew that.
I called security from the neighborhood gate.
Minutes later, Ryan and Jessica were standing on the porch.
I locked the door.
Ryan pounded against it.
“Emily! Open this door!”
I pointed through the window toward the small camera mounted above the living-room bookshelf.
Ryan stopped.
His face drained of color.
“You forgot about that?”
Jessica looked at him.
“What camera?”
“The one that recorded you kissing my husband.”
I looked directly at Ryan.
“And recorded you hitting Sophie.”
Sirens sounded at the end of the street.
Ryan backed away from the door.
“Emily, please.”
I held Sophie against me.
“Explain everything to the police.”
Then Sophie whispered something against my shoulder.
“Mommy…”
“What?”
“Daddy knew the camera was there.”
I looked down.
She was trembling.
“He covered it yesterday.”
My stomach dropped.
I looked toward the camera.
Its small green light was still blinking.
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If Ryan thought he had disabled it, someone had turned it back on.
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