Chapter 1 - The Second Line
The harsh thud of my knees against the hardwood sent a jolt of pain up my spine.
But the physical pain was nothing compared to the ice suddenly running through my veins.
The letter fluttered from my trembling fingers and landed face up on the rug.
Arthur, the lawyer in the sharp gray suit, did not make a single move to help me up.
He just stood there with an expression of cold, calculated indifference.
I forced myself to look down at the letter again, praying I had misread the words.
"I am the man who orchestrated the murder of your biological parents twenty years ago."
The ink seemed to burn into my retinas.
My breath caught in my throat as the world spun around me in dizzying circles.
The couple who had raised me, who died in a car crash when I was sixteen, had never mentioned an adoption.
I looked up at Arthur, my voice shaking uncontrollably.
"What is this sick joke?"
Arthur finally reached into his briefcase and pulled out a thick, black folder.
"Carl was not a sick man looking for comfort, madam."
"He was the head of the largest underground crime syndicate on the East Coast."
"Your marriage yesterday was not an act of love."
"It was a legal maneuver to transfer his fifty-million-dollar estate to someone the authorities wouldn't suspect."
I scrambled backward on the floor, trying to put distance between myself and this madman.
"I don't want his money, I just want you to leave!"
Arthur sighed and pulled a heavy, black handgun from his coat.
My heart hammered against my ribs like a trapped bird.
"It is too late for that," he said quietly.
"By signing that marriage certificate, you inherited his fortune, but you also inherited his enemies."
Suddenly, the front window of my living room shattered inward in a shower of broken glass.
A tear gas canister rolled across the rug, hissing white smoke.
May you like
Arthur grabbed my arm with terrifying strength and dragged me toward the back door.
"If you want to live to see tomorrow, you have to run right now."
