Chapter 1 - The Fall He Thought Would End Everything
Brandon's hands hit my shoulders with enough force to lift my heels off the stone.
For one suspended second, I saw his face inches from mine—jaw locked, eyes flat, dark blue designer suit perfectly pressed despite the chaos between us. Then the marble railing struck the back of my thighs, the courtyard tilted beneath me, and I went over.
"Brandon!"
My scream tore out of me as the second-floor balcony vanished above my head.
The phone in my hand spun away first. I watched it hit the paved courtyard and explode into black glass and silver fragments a heartbeat before my own body slammed down.
Pain burst through my left side so violently that my vision flashed white.
I couldn't breathe.
I couldn't move.
Above me, Brandon stepped to the railing and looked down.
Margaret appeared beside him in her cream-colored dress and pearl necklace, one hand resting lightly on the marble as if she were admiring the ornamental fountain instead of her daughter-in-law broken on the stones below.
"She deserved it," she said.
The words floated down with terrifying calm.
I tried to drag air into my lungs. My right palm scraped across the paving stones. My shoulder screamed. Something warm slid from the corner of my mouth, and when I wiped it with trembling fingers, they came away red.
Margaret's expression did not change.
Brandon's did.
Not because I was alive.
Because he was looking at my shattered phone.
He leaned farther over the railing, searching the pieces scattered beside me.
"Where is it?" he snapped.
Margaret's mouth curved into a small, satisfied smile.
"The evidence is gone," she called down. "Even if you aren't dead, there's nothing you can do now."
I let my head fall back against the cold stone and forced myself not to react.
Three minutes earlier, Brandon had demanded the phone because he believed every file I had found was stored on it. He had watched me unlock it. He had seen the photographs of forged signatures, wire transfers, and the scanned page carrying my name beneath words I had never agreed to.
He had not seen what I did before I confronted him.
My fingers moved toward the inside seam of my black pants.
Brandon's face tightened.
"Emma," he said, suddenly careful. "Don't move. You could be hurt worse than you think."
The concern in his voice would have sounded convincing to anyone who had not just felt both his hands throw her off a balcony.
I pulled the small metal USB drive from my pocket.
Sunlight flashed across it.
Margaret's smile disappeared.
Brandon went completely still.
For the first time since he shoved me, I saw fear in his eyes.
I lifted the drive as high as my shaking arm would allow.
"Really?" I whispered.
His hand tightened around the railing.
Margaret turned sharply toward him. "You said she only had the phone."
"She did."
"Obviously not."
Brandon looked down at me again, and whatever false concern had entered his face vanished.
"Emma, give me the drive."
I coughed, and pain tore through my ribs.
"Come get it."
His stare hardened.
Then he disappeared from the balcony.
Margaret followed.
A door slammed somewhere inside the villa.
I heard their footsteps pounding down the marble staircase.
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I had maybe twenty seconds before the two people who had just tried to kill me reached the courtyard—and I could barely lift my head.
📖 See where Emma hides the USB before Brandon reaches the courtyard—and what his panic reveals about the evidence he thought he destroyed in CHAPTER 2. 👇
