Chương 1
"The warm liquid spreading beneath Claire Morgan on the marble floor frightened her more than the pain, because at thirty-four weeks pregnant she knew exactly what it meant.
“Ethan, my water broke.”
Her brother stood three feet away with several strands of her dark hair still tangled around his fingers.
For one suspended second, nobody moved.
Claire pressed one hand beneath the weight of her belly and tried to push herself upright, but a contraction seized her so sharply that her elbow buckled.
“Call an ambulance,” she gasped.
Their father caught Ethan by the shoulder instead.
“Come on.”
Claire stared at him.
“Dad?”
Richard Morgan would not meet her eyes.
He steered Ethan toward the elevator while her mother grabbed her purse from the kitchen counter.
Chloe remained beside the couch, white-faced in the silk dress she had worn to her rehearsal dinner.
“Mom, please.”
Diane hesitated with her hand against the elevator button.
Claire saw the hesitation and hated herself for feeling hope.
“You always make everything into a catastrophe,” Diane said.
Then she stepped into the elevator.
“I'm bleeding.”
That stopped Chloe.
She looked down.
A thin pink streak had mixed with the fluid on the pale marble.
“Oh, God.”
Ethan swore under his breath.
“She's doing this on purpose.”
Claire almost laughed because the accusation was so absurd, but another contraction stole the air from her lungs.
The elevator doors began closing.
“Chloe,” she said.
Chloe looked at her new husband.
Then she looked at Claire.
“I’m sorry.”
She slipped through the narrowing doors.
Claire watched four members of her family disappear.
The apartment became horribly quiet.
Her phone lay near the coffee table where she had dropped it before Ethan grabbed her hair.
She stretched for it and discovered that moving her right leg sent a bright bolt of pain through her hip.
“Come on.”
Her fingertips brushed the phone without catching it.
She tried again.
Someone pounded on the front door.
“Ms. Morgan?”
Claire froze.
The knock came again, harder.
“My name is Daniel Reeves.”
A man’s voice carried through the door.
“I’m a federal agent, and I need to speak with you regarding a property transfer submitted in your name.”
The blue folder Ethan had brought lay open beside the couch.
Claire stared at it.
A transfer deed rested on top, followed by photocopies of documents she had never signed.
Another contraction tightened across her abdomen.
“Help!”
The word came out as a scream.
Silence followed outside.
Then the man shouted, “Ms. Morgan, are you injured?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“I’m pregnant.”
Claire swallowed.
“My water broke.”
The response was immediate.
“Calling EMS now.”
Claire lowered her forehead to the floor.
The marble smelled faintly of lemon cleaner because Rosa had polished it that morning while complaining that rich people bought white floors and then acted surprised when shoes touched them.
Claire had laughed.
She nearly laughed again now, and the strange impulse frightened her.
“Stay with me, Ms. Morgan.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
There was a pause.
“That was almost funny.”
“Wasn’t meant to be.”
“Even better.”
The absurd exchange steadied her breathing.
Daniel asked whether she could reach the door.
“No.”
“Is anyone else inside?”
“No.”
“Do you have a building manager or security desk?”
“Yes.”
“I’m working on it.”
Claire shut her eyes.
She could hear him speaking to someone else, his words muffled through the heavy door.
Her obstetrician had told her that premature rupture did not automatically mean immediate delivery, but the fall changed everything, and the blood changed it again.
She hated that her mind went to practical things when she was frightened.
Hospital bag.
Insurance card.
Phone charger.
The tiny gray sleeper she had washed twice and packed despite knowing newborns did not care whether cotton smelled like lavender detergent.
Her baby kicked.
Claire put both hands over the movement.
“Hey.”
Her voice shook.
“You stay where you are.”
The baby kicked again.
A lock clicked.
The door opened, and a broad-shouldered man in a navy suit entered behind Marco Alvarez, the building’s night security supervisor.
Daniel Reeves took in the room without rushing toward her.
That restraint made Claire trust him more than panic would have.
“Claire?”
“Yes.”
“Ambulance is coming up.”
Marco’s face collapsed when he saw the blood.
“Jesus, Ms. Morgan.”
“Marco, don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Look like that.”
He immediately arranged his face into such an exaggerated expression of calm that Claire would have laughed under different circumstances.
Daniel crouched several feet away.
“Did somebody assault you?”
Claire looked at the elevator.
“My brother.”
“Is he still in the building?”
“Probably not.”
“Did anyone else witness it?”
“My parents.”
She paused.
“And his wife.”
Daniel’s gaze shifted to the folder.
“Don’t touch that,” Claire said.
“I wasn’t going to.”
“That’s evidence.”
“Yes.”
“My brother brought it.”
Daniel looked back at her.
“That’s important.”
The elevator opened again before he could say more.
Two paramedics hurried in with equipment, followed by a building employee Claire had never met.
Questions replaced silence.
How many weeks?
Thirty-four.
First pregnancy?
Yes.
Any complications?
No.
Where did she hit?
Hip, maybe abdomen, she could not tell.
Was she having contractions?
Yes.
How far apart?
Claire had no idea.
One paramedic, a woman named Keisha, knelt beside her and spoke with the calm impatience of someone accustomed to frightened people giving unnecessarily complicated answers.
“Baby moving?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
That single word nearly broke Claire.
She turned her face away.
Keisha touched her wrist.
“Stay with me.”
“I am.”
“I know, but stay here, not six terrible possibilities ahead.”
Claire nodded.
They transferred her onto a stretcher, and the movement sent pain through her pelvis.
As they wheeled her toward the elevator, she saw Daniel put on gloves and stand over Ethan’s folder.
“Agent Reeves.”
He glanced up.
“Why were you here?”
The elevator doors waited open behind her.
May you like
Daniel seemed to choose his words.
“Someone filed documents this afternoon attempting to transfer ownership of this residence through a company already connected to an active fraud investigation.”
