Chapter 1 - THE FALL
Emma Hawthorne had never been welcomed into her husband’s family.
The Hawthornes were old money, and they made certain everyone knew it.
Their portraits hung in museums.
Their names appeared on hospital wings, university libraries, and charitable foundations across New York.
Emma’s name appeared nowhere.
To Eleanor Hawthorne, the family matriarch, Emma was merely the middle-class daughter of a disgraced accountant.
To Vanessa Hawthorne, Emma was something even worse.
She was a threat.
The argument began at the top of the mansion’s grand marble staircase during Eleanor’s seventy-second birthday dinner.
More than thirty relatives and business partners were gathered below.
A string quartet played quietly near the ballroom.
Champagne glasses glittered beneath the chandeliers.
Vanessa stood in front of Emma wearing a dark green evening gown.
Her face was pale beneath her perfect makeup.
“Give it to me,” Vanessa whispered.
Emma tightened her fingers around the small silver flash drive hidden inside her palm.
“No.”
“You have no idea what you’re holding.”
“I know exactly what it is.”
Vanessa glanced toward the guests below.
Then she leaned closer.
“You were supposed to marry Ethan and keep your mouth shut.”
Emma felt her unborn daughter move beneath her dress.
She placed one protective hand over her belly.
“My father died with everyone believing he was a thief.”
Vanessa’s eyes hardened.
“He was a thief.”
“That’s not what the records say.”
For the first time, fear flashed across Vanessa’s face.
Emma stepped backward.
“I already called Detective Ruiz.”
Vanessa moved before Emma could react.
Both of her hands slammed into Emma’s upper chest.
Emma’s heel slipped over the edge of the first step.
The flash drive flew from her hand.
Then Emma fell.
Her shoulder struck the marble.
Her hip hit the next step.
Pain exploded through her body as she tumbled toward the foyer.
Someone screamed.
Emma landed at the bottom with both hands wrapped around her pregnant belly.
For several seconds, she could not breathe.
No one moved.
Vanessa hurried down the stairs and seized the arm of Maria, one of the housemaids.
“She attacked me!” Vanessa shouted.
“She tried to throw me over the railing!”
Maria stared at Emma in horror.
Vanessa tightened her grip on the maid’s wrist.
“Tell them what you saw.”
Emma reached slowly into the pocket of her torn dress.
Her fingers closed around her phone.
She pressed the number she had memorized.
When Detective Lena Ruiz answered, Emma forced the words through the pain.
“Detective.”
Her voice trembled.
“Send everyone here immediately.”
Vanessa’s expression changed.
She suddenly understood that Emma was not calling for an ambulance.
Emma had just activated the raid.
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Before anyone could speak, red and blue lights flooded the mansion windows.
Then the front doors shook beneath a thunderous knock.
