Chapter 9
I showed the photograph to my father.
He looked at it calmly.
Too calmly.
"She's been threatening me for years," he said. "She won't act. Not directly. She's too cowardly for that."
But I saw the way he tightened his security that day.
The way he made phone calls.
The way he looked over his shoulder when he thought I wasn't watching.
He was scared.
For me.
For Emma.
For himself.
I spent the next few days going through everything Daniel had given me.
The emails were damning.
Linda talking about "neutralizing" me.
About making sure I never saw Emma again.
About breaking my father financially.
And then I found something.
Something that made me stop breathing.
An email from Linda to her attorney.
Dated three years ago.
Two weeks before Daniel and I got married.
*The marriage is set. Daniel will play his part. Once the child is born, we'll have permanent leverage over Carter. If he doesn't hand over his company to us, we'll destroy his daughter. We'll make sure she never sees her child again. He'll fold. He always was weak when it came to family.*
I stared at the email.
Emma.
She'd planned to use Emma as leverage.
Before Emma was even born.
Before I was even pregnant.
I felt sick.
And then I found another email.
This one more recent.
*Victoria is pregnant. Two months along. Once we have custody of the Harrington heir, we can get rid of the Carter girl. Permanently. Daniel won't fight us. He never does.*
Victoria was pregnant.
Linda was going to have a new grandchild.
One that was pure Harrington.
And Emma was disposable.
I picked up the phone.
I called Daniel.
He answered immediately.
"Sarah?"
"Victoria is pregnant," I said.
There was a long silence.
"Did you know?"
"I found out yesterday," he said. His voice was broken. "Linda told me. She said it was perfect. That we could finally have a real family."
"A real family," I repeated. "And Emma?"
"She said Emma would be better off with you," he said. "That she'd never be a real Harrington anyway. That having her around would just confuse the new baby."
I closed my eyes.
"Daniel," I said. "Listen to me. Your mother is going to use Victoria's pregnancy to argue that she can provide a 'stable' home for Emma. That she has a new family on the way. That I'm alone and unstable."
"I know," he said. "I tried to fight her. But she—"
"She what? Threatened you again?"
"She showed me something," he said. His voice dropped to a whisper. "A video. Of me. That night. The night my father died."
My blood ran cold.
"What do you mean?"
"I was fourteen," he said. "I was scared. I went into my father's room after Linda left. I wanted to make sure he was okay. And I touched him. To see if he was breathing. And Linda was filming. The whole time. She's been using that video for twelve years. Telling people if they look closely, they can see me smothering him. That I killed my own father."
I couldn't speak.
"She's been blackmailing me with it," he said. "Saying if I ever cross her, she'll release it to the press. To the police. That I'll go to prison for my father's murder."
"Oh, Daniel," I whispered.
"She's evil," he said. "And I've let her control me my whole life. But not anymore. Not when Emma's at stake. Not when Victoria's baby is going to be raised by that monster."
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm going to testify," he said. "I'm going to tell the court everything. What she did to my father. What she did to you. What she's planning to do to Emma. And if she releases that video… so be it. I'll take my chances. But I'm not letting her win anymore."
For the first time since Christmas Eve, I felt something like hope.
"Daniel," I said. "Thank you."
"Don't thank me yet," he said. "Linda is going to fight back. And when she does, it's going to be ugly."
He was right.
The next morning, the news broke.
*LOCAL BUSINESSMAN THOMAS CARTER LINKED TO MURDER-FOR-HIRE SCHEME.*
The article was everywhere.
Online.
In the newspapers.
On the news.
It claimed my father had hired a hitman to kill Richard Harrington twelve years ago.
That he'd been in love with Linda.
That he'd wanted Richard out of the way.
The evidence was thin.
A paid witness.
Some forged emails.
But it was enough.
Enough to destroy my father's reputation.
Enough to make him look like a murderer.
Enough to make me look like the daughter of a killer.
And the custody hearing was in three days.
I stared at the news article.
And then my phone rang.
It was Linda.
I answered.
May you like
Her voice was cold and triumphant.
"Hello, Sarah. Enjoying the news? Your father is going to prison. And I'm going to get my granddaughter. And there's nothing you can do to stop me."
