Chapter 1 - The Door He Thought She Couldn’t Open
At seven months pregnant, Beatatrice Rossy watched her husband kiss her younger sister.
Her clutch hit the floor.
Gabriel looked up.
For one desperate second, Beatatrice expected guilt. Panic. Maybe even shame.
Instead, his face went cold.
That frightened her more than the kiss.
She turned toward the staircase, but Gabriel caught her arm.
“How could you do that?” Her voice broke. “With my sister?”
“It meant nothing.”
“She’s my sister.”
“Release,” Gabriel said. “That’s all.”
Beatatrice stared at the man who kissed her pregnant belly every morning and called her his sanctuary.
“I’m leaving you.”
Gabriel laughed.
Not loudly.
“You aren’t going anywhere.”
“Watch me.”
His eyes traveled over her pregnant body.
“You’re seven months pregnant. You have no idea what exists outside my protection anymore.”
“I’ll disappear.”
For the first time, his expression changed.
Gabriel leaned close to her ear.
“You can’t disappear. You belong to me.”
Then his voice dropped lower.
“If you run, I will find you. I don’t care where you go. I will hunt you to the ends of the earth, bring you back here, and chain you to our bed until that child is born if that’s what it takes.”
Minutes later, Gabriel marched his pregnant wife upstairs.
Then he locked the bedroom door from the outside.
For almost an hour, Beatatrice sat on the bed while hundreds of guests celebrated New Year’s Eve below.
Gabriel believed she was trapped.
He believed pregnancy had made her helpless.
He believed she couldn’t survive without his money.
Beatatrice wiped away her tears.
Then she walked into the closet and pushed aside several designer coats.
Beneath one loose floorboard was something Gabriel had never known existed.
A black duffel bag.
Beatatrice pulled it free.
Inside was cash and prepaid cards she had quietly collected for months.
She had been preparing.
But money couldn’t open the locked bedroom door, and the windows offered nothing but a two-story drop.
Then she looked at the paneled wall at the far end of the closet.
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There was one thing about Gabriel’s mansion he had forgotten she knew.
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