Chapter 1 - The Woman Outside the Gates
By the time Roman reached the estate, I could no longer feel my feet.
Cold rain moved across the polished driveway in silver sheets. My cream dress clung to my skin, almost transparent beneath the storm, and both hands remained locked beneath my belly as if my arms could protect our daughter from everything the Kane family had done.
My scalp burned.
Uneven strands of blonde hair stuck to the sides of my face. The rest lay somewhere inside the mansion, scattered across Eleanor’s private dressing room beneath the chair where Vanessa had held my shoulders.
I kept repeating the same words.
“We are okay, baby. We are okay.”
A black sedan appeared beyond the gates.
It did not slow until the tires struck water and sent it across the stone. The rear door opened before the driver stopped completely.
Roman stepped into the rain.
His black suit became soaked within seconds. He saw the guards first, then the open gate, then me.
Everything in his face changed.
He crossed the driveway at a run and dropped to his knees so hard that one trouser leg tore against the stone.
“Bianca.”
His hands moved toward my face, then stopped before touching the bruises.
“What happened?”
I tried to answer.
My teeth were shaking too violently.
He cupped my jaw with a gentleness that made the night hurt more.
His eyes moved over my split lip, the dark mark near my temple, and the places where my hair had been hacked close to the scalp.
“She held me down,” I whispered. “She cut it all off.”
Roman looked toward the mansion.
Eleanor stood beneath the portico wearing a long charcoal coat over an ivory evening gown. Vanessa waited beside her in black, one hand holding a phone at chest height.
Still recording.
Roman removed his jacket and placed it around my shoulders.
“Stay with me.”
He rose.
“Which one of you touched my wife?”
His voice never became loud.
The guards near the gate stepped backward anyway.
Eleanor descended one step.
“She created another performance. You should ask what she did before blaming your family.”
Roman crossed the distance between them.
Vanessa lifted the phone higher.
He took it from her hand and smashed it against the wet stone.
The screen shattered.
Vanessa gasped.
“That had private files.”
“So does every camera in this house.”
He looked toward the nearest guard.
“Lock every exit. Nobody leaves.”
Eleanor’s expression tightened.
“You do not issue orders to me inside the home your father built.”
Roman stopped directly before her.
“I own the estate, the security company, and the road beneath your car.”
“You own nothing that existed before you.”
“That sounds like a legal argument. You should save it.”
Eleanor pointed toward me.
“She is trash. I only taught her where she belongs.”
Roman caught her wrist when she tried to turn away.
He forced her to face the driveway.
“Look at her.”
“Release me.”
“You shaved my pregnant wife and put her outside in a storm.”
“She refused to respect the standards of this family.”
“She is eight months pregnant.”
“She used the child to trap you.”
A pain tightened across my lower stomach.
I gasped and tried to rise.
My knees folded.
Roman released Eleanor and turned.
“Bianca?”
“Our daughter.”
The pain continued, sharper than the previous contractions. I pressed both hands against my belly and felt the baby move hard beneath my palm.
Roman reached me and lifted me from the flooded stone.
I held his neck.
“Do not take me inside.”
“Why?”
“She did not act alone.”
Behind us, the guards opened the mansion doors under Roman’s command.
Two men entered.
They stopped immediately.
One of them swore beneath his breath.
Roman looked toward the entrance.
“What did you find?”
The guard did not answer at first.
Roman’s voice hardened.
“Tell me.”
“There is blood inside the west hallway.”
Eleanor moved toward the door.
Roman blocked her.
“Whose blood?”
“I do not know,” the guard answered. “The floor camera is gone. The nursery door is chained from the outside.”
Roman carried me toward the car instead of the house.
Eleanor followed beneath the rain.
“She is lying to you. She struck Vanessa, destroyed private documents, and threatened to take the child away.”
I looked over Roman’s shoulder.
“Ask her why the nursery was chained.”
Eleanor stopped.
Vanessa tried to retrieve the broken phone from the driveway.
A guard caught her arm.
Roman placed me carefully across the rear seat.
His driver called emergency services while another vehicle moved to block the gate.
I held Roman’s shirt.
“The house doctor gave me something.”
“When?”
“This afternoon.”
“What?”
“He said it was for the baby.”
“Did you take it?”
“Eleanor forced it into my mouth.”
Roman’s jaw tightened.
“What happened after?”
“I became dizzy. Vanessa took my phone. They carried me upstairs.”
“Who carried you?”
“One of the guards.”
“Which one?”
“I could not see.”
Roman looked toward the men at the gate.
There were four present.
None met his eyes.
The ambulance siren became audible beyond the trees.
I pulled him closer.
“There was another person in the room.”
“Who?”
“I heard a man tell Eleanor not to cut too deeply.”
His expression became still.
“Did you recognize the voice?”
“No.”
“Did he touch you?”
“He signed something.”
“What?”
“A document beside the scissors.”
Roman glanced toward the mansion.
The nursery lights went out.
All of them.
At the same moment.
Someone remained inside the house despite the security lockdown.
Roman handed me to the paramedics when the ambulance arrived. He climbed in beside me while his security chief ordered a full sweep of the estate.
As the doors closed, Roman’s phone rang.
The caller used his private office line.
Only three people knew that number.
He answered.
No voice came through.
Only the sound of scissors opening and closing.
Then a man whispered.
“You came home too early.”
May you like
The call ended.
Continue to the next part: Roman locks down the mansion while doctors discover that Bianca was given a drug capable of harming both her and the baby.
