Chapter 3

Tiff leaned close to Sarah, her breath smelling of smoke and triumph.

"He' s been mine for years, you know," Tiff whispered, her eyes glittering. "Five years. And guess what?"

She patted her own flat stomach. "I' m pregnant too. With his baby. A real heir, not like yours."

Sarah' s world tilted. Five years.

Ethan, to appease Tiff, who was pouting slightly, looked around the opulent barn.

His eyes landed on a heavy iron poker resting by the enormous stone fireplace.

He picked it up, weighed it in his hand.

He offered it to Tiff, handle first.

"Here, baby," Ethan said, his voice casual, as if offering a drink. "Finish her off. Aim for the stomach. This trashy woman... her husband will probably thank us for getting rid of her and whatever mistake she' s carrying."

He didn't know. He truly didn't know it was her, or her baby.

His baby.

Tiff took the poker, her eyes alight with cruel glee.

She swung.

The first blow landed on Sarah' s side, knocking the air from her lungs.

Pain exploded, white-hot.

Another blow, to her leg.

Then Tiff raised the poker high, aiming directly at Sarah' s pregnant belly.

Sarah squeezed her eyes shut, a silent scream trapped in her throat.

The impact was sickening. A deep, tearing agony.

She felt a warm gush between her legs.

Her baby. Her last child.

The memory of Ethan' s hand on her belly that morning, his soft words about their future, flashed through her mind.

A future he was now destroying with such casual brutality.

Consciousness slipped away, the darkness a welcome relief.

She awoke to a jolting motion, the smell of diesel and blood.

She was in the back of a pickup truck.

Her eyes focused slowly.

Leo and Lily lay beside her, their small faces pale, still.

Dead.

A wave of nausea and grief so profound it stole her breath washed over her.

A man was driving. She recognized him, vaguely.

Michael. A junior employee from Ethan' s company, years ago. He' d been kind to her at a charity event, a small, forgotten moment of politeness.

He was working as event staff here tonight.

He glanced back, his face pale, horrified.

"Mrs. Hayes," he stammered, his voice shaking. "I... I saw what they did. I' m trying to get you to a hospital."

He recognized her. A near-stranger recognized her when her own husband hadn' t.