Chapter 2 - Then Walk Carefully
The night Sophia was six days old, snow covered the private road leading to the Hale family’s mountain house.
Vivienne had been awake for nearly thirty hours.
Sophia would sleep only while pressed against her chest, so Vivienne carried her beneath a thick blanket while walking downstairs for water.
She heard laughter in Dominic’s office.
A woman’s laughter.
When Vivienne opened the door, Claire Whitmore was standing beside Dominic’s desk wearing his cashmere sweater.
Claire was not a stranger.
She managed events for one of the Hale family foundations and had visited the house repeatedly during Vivienne’s pregnancy.
Dominic did not apologize.
He told Claire to leave through the garage, then turned on Vivienne.
“You had no right to barge in.”
“This is my home.”
“Not for much longer.”
Vivienne demanded an explanation.
Dominic grabbed her overnight bag from the hall and threw it onto the porch.
When she tried to step past him, he shoved her backward.
Vivienne fell onto one knee in the snow, twisting her body to keep Sophia protected against her chest.
The cold struck immediately.
“Please,” she said. “She’s six days old.”
Dominic remained inside the warm doorway.
“Then walk carefully.”
He closed the door.
The lock clicked.
Vivienne had no coat, no shoes, and no phone in her hand.
But the diaper bag had fallen beside her.
Inside it was an emergency recorder she had activated weeks earlier after Dominic began threatening to take Sophia.
With numb fingers, Vivienne pressed the side button.
A tiny light appeared beneath the blanket.
May you like
Dominic believed the storm would erase the truth.
Instead, the snow preserved every word.
