Chapter 1 - Behind the Glass
Ava Monroe was seven months pregnant when her husband slapped her across the face, dragged her toward the glass wine cellar, and locked her inside.
“Julian, stay away from me!”
He didn’t.
At thirty-two weeks pregnant, Ava had learned to move carefully. Her center of gravity had changed. Her back ached by evening. Their daughter seemed to kick hardest whenever Ava became frightened or angry.
Tonight, the baby was kicking so violently that Ava instinctively wrapped both arms around her belly.
Julian seized her wrist.
“Let go of me!”
“Ava, stop making this worse.”
“You brought her into my house!”
Serena Vale stood ten feet away in a red silk dress, holding a champagne flute as casually as if she had been invited for dinner.
Around Serena’s neck glittered Ava’s diamond necklace.
The necklace had belonged to Ava’s grandmother.
Ava had spent three days searching for it.
Serena touched the stones.
“It looks better on me anyway.”
Ava stared at Julian.
“You gave her my necklace?”
Julian’s jaw tightened.
“You’re hysterical.”
That word.
He had been using it more often lately.
Whenever Ava questioned strange bank notices.
Whenever she asked why Serena, Julian’s general counsel at Ward Capital Partners, called him after midnight.
Whenever Ava said she wanted to spend the final weeks of her pregnancy at her mother’s coastal home instead of their mansion in Westchester County.
Hysterical.
Unstable.
Overreacting.
Now his fingers dug into her arm.
“Julian, you’re hurting me.”
“Then stop fighting.”
He forced her through the climate-controlled glass wine cellar.
Ava nearly lost her footing.
“Let go!”
The glass door slammed.
Then came the sound that terrified her most.
BEEP.
CLICK.
Locked.
Ava spun around.
Julian stood outside holding the security keycard.
Rain hammered against the massive windows behind him.
Lightning illuminated the living room in white flashes.
Ava pounded against the glass.
“Open this door!”
Julian shook his head.
“When you calm down.”
“I’m pregnant!”
“I’m aware.”
“You hit me!”
“You attacked Serena.”
“I grabbed my necklace!”
Serena took a slow drink of champagne.
Ava could barely understand what she was seeing.
Her husband.
His lawyer.
Her jewelry.
Her home.
And the locked door between them.
Then headlights swept across the windows.
Julian turned sharply.
A car stopped outside.
The front door opened.
“AVA?!”
Margaret Monroe had returned unexpectedly from Boston in the middle of the storm.
Ava’s sixty-one-year-old mother stepped into the living room carrying a wet umbrella.
She froze.
Her daughter was trapped behind glass.
Ava’s cheek was red.
Her wrist already showed fingerprints.
“Mom!”
Margaret dropped the umbrella.
“He locked me in!”
Julian immediately stepped away from the control panel.
“She was out of control.”
Margaret did not ask for his explanation.
She rushed toward the emergency release beside the cellar.
Julian caught her shoulder.
“Margaret, don’t.”
She shoved him away.
“Take your hand off me.”
She struck the emergency release.
CLICK.
The lock disengaged.
Ava pushed the door open.
She stepped out and immediately moved behind her mother.
Margaret wrapped one arm around her.
“You locked your pregnant wife in there?”
Julian raised both hands.
“You don’t understand what happened.”
“I understand that she has a handprint on her face.”
“It became physical.”
“You made it physical.”
Serena quietly began moving toward the staircase.
Ava noticed.
Beneath Serena’s handbag was a black legal folder.
Ava’s full name was printed across the front.
AVA ELIZABETH MONROE WARD.
Fear sharpened into suspicion.
“Mom.”
Margaret followed her gaze.
“Take that folder.”
Serena’s face changed.
Julian froze.
“Margaret, leave it.”
Serena lunged.
Margaret reached the folder first.
“What is this?”
“Privileged legal material,” Serena snapped.
“With my daughter’s name on it?”
“Give it back.”
Margaret opened it.
The first document was a Rhode Island deed concerning Halcyon Villa, the oceanfront property in Newport Ava had inherited from her father.
Owner:
Ava Elizabeth Monroe Ward.
The next document transferred the property to Seabright Coastal Holdings LLC.
Ava had never heard of it.
Attached was a management agreement giving Julian sole authority to refinance, mortgage, sell, or pledge the property.
At the bottom was Ava’s signature.
Except Ava had never signed it.
“I never signed that.”
Julian said nothing.
Margaret turned another page.
A handwritten instruction appeared in blue ink:
TRANSFER MUST BE COMPLETED BEFORE DELIVERY.
Ava stared.
“Before delivery?”
Her hand moved over her stomach.
“Why?”
Margaret found another agreement.
This one was not about the villa.
It concerned parental rights after Ava gave birth.
The heading read:
POST-DELIVERY CUSTODY INSTRUCTION AND TEMPORARY CAREGIVER DESIGNATION.
Serena Vale’s full name appeared beside information about Ava’s unborn daughter.
Ava went completely still.
“Why is her name connected to my child?”
For the first time, Serena stopped looking smug.
Julian went pale.
Ava stared at her husband.
The missing necklace.
The secret meetings.
The questions about Halcyon Villa.
The strange conversations about whether Ava was “emotionally ready” for motherhood.
“You weren’t just trying to take my house.”
Julian said nothing.
Ava’s voice became colder.
“You were waiting until I gave birth.”
Margaret began turning to the next page.
Serena panicked.
“Don’t read page two!”
Everyone froze.
Margaret slowly looked at her.
“Why?”
Serena could not answer.
But Ava saw something more frightening.
Julian was staring at Serena with pure fear.
Margaret pulled the page farther out.
One line became visible.
POST-DELIVERY CUSTODY INSTRUCTION: UPON DOCUMENTED MATERNAL PSYCHIATRIC INSTABILITY, INITIATE EMERGENCY PETITION FOR EXCLUSIVE TEMPORARY CUSTODY…
Ava stopped breathing.
The next line named Serena.
TEMPORARY RESIDENTIAL CAREGIVER FOR INFANT.
“What were you going to do with my baby?”
Julian said nothing.
Serena rushed forward.
“Margaret, stop!”
Margaret pulled the page free.
The final sentence was handwritten.
If Ava resists psychiatric admission, call emergency services immediately. Do not permit her to leave with the child.
Ava stared through the storm-lit room at her husband.
Twenty minutes earlier she had believed she had discovered an affair.
May you like
Now she understood the affair might be the smallest betrayal in the house.
And Julian was still holding the keycard that had locked her behind glass.
