Chapter 2 - The House That Obeyed Me
Daniel stared at the intercom as though a corpse had spoken his name.
Henry pounded again from beneath the house.
“Claire, the gas line has been cut.”
Vanessa screamed from behind the glass.
“You said nobody else was down there!”
Daniel struck the door with his fist.
“Shut up, Vanessa.”
His answer told me everything.
He knew Henry was alive.
The cold had begun moving through my wet dress. My contractions were five minutes apart, perhaps less. Each one sent pressure through my spine and down my injured leg.
I reached for my phone, but Daniel kicked it into the snow.
“You are not calling anyone.”
He bent toward the remote.
I drove the metal edge into his hand.
Daniel cursed and pulled back.
The front gate suddenly opened. Headlights swept across the snowy drive as a black SUV approached the mansion.
For one terrible second, I thought Daniel’s men had arrived.
Then I saw the emblem of the private emergency service my mother had connected to the security system.
Daniel had never read the architectural documents. He did not know pressing the red button did more than lock the doors.
It also sent a silent emergency alert.
Two paramedics and a security officer rushed toward us.
Daniel changed instantly.
His face softened. His shoulders dropped. He became the concerned husband he performed so well in public.
“My wife fell,” he said. “She is confused and emotionally unstable.”
I pointed toward the scattered documents.
“He shoved me.”
Daniel shook his head sadly.
“She has been struggling throughout the pregnancy.”
The security officer retrieved my phone from the snow. Its camera was still recording.
Daniel saw the red light on the screen.
His performance collapsed.
Inside the mansion, Vanessa grabbed a silver fireplace tool and struck the glass door. The reinforced panel did not crack.
The gas alarm continued screaming.
The security officer spoke into his radio.
“Fire department and police are approaching. Possible intentional gas leak. One person trapped in the basement.”
Daniel seized my arm.
“If they open that archive, your mother’s name will be destroyed.”
I looked into the eyes of the man I had married.
“My mother is dead.”
“That does not mean she was innocent.”
The paramedics lifted me onto a stretcher. One covered me with heated blankets while the other examined my ankle and checked the baby’s heartbeat.
His expression tightened.
“We need to move. The baby is showing distress.”
As they carried me toward the ambulance, firefighters entered the mansion through a side emergency door.
Vanessa ran into the snow wearing only my robe and slippers.
Her rounded stomach had shifted strangely beneath the silk.
One firefighter stared at it.
Vanessa covered herself with both arms.
Daniel shouted at her to get into his car.
Before she could move, two firefighters emerged from the mansion carrying Henry Walsh.
His face was bruised. His wrists were bound with electrical wire.
Henry saw me on the stretcher and lifted his head.
“Daniel forged the marriage trust,” he called. “He does not inherit the house if you die.”
Daniel stopped.
Henry coughed against the oxygen mask.
May you like
“He inherits it when the baby is born.”
Continue to the next part: A secret clause in Claire’s mother’s trust turns her unborn child into the final obstacle between Daniel and the mansion.
