Chapter 1 - THE LIGHTS WENT OUT BEFORE THE NEXT BLOWAt 5:03 in the morning, Trent ripped the blanket from my body and dragged me toward the edge of the bed.
“Get up, you useless cow!”
I was six months pregnant.
My back burned whenever I stood too quickly, and my legs had been swelling for days. But pain meant nothing in the Morgan house unless it belonged to Trent.
“My parents are hungry,” he shouted. “Do you think carrying a baby makes you royalty?”
I pushed myself upright, one hand supporting my stomach.
“Please. Give me a minute.”
He laughed.
Then he grabbed my wrist and pulled me toward the hallway.
Downstairs, his parents were already waiting in the kitchen.
Helen sat at the breakfast table wearing a pink silk robe, sipping coffee as if she had ordered the entertainment herself. Richard stood near the doorway with his arms folded. Trent’s sister, Nicole, held her phone up openly, recording me for a private family chat.
“Look at her,” Helen said. “Slow, lazy, and dramatic.”
Nicole smiled at her screen.
Trent pointed toward the stove.
“Turn it on. Now.”
I opened the refrigerator, but dizziness surged through me. The shelves tilted. My knees buckled, and I collapsed onto the freezing marble floor.
Richard grunted.
“Get up.”
“I can’t.”
Trent walked toward the pantry corner and picked up a thick wooden stick used to secure the back door.
My heartbeat became the only sound I could hear.
“I told you to get up.”
The first strike landed against my thigh.
Pain flashed through my body. I curled inward, both arms covering my belly.
Helen laughed.
“Hit her again. She has to learn her place.”
“Please,” I whispered. “The baby.”
Trent raised the stick.
My phone lay several feet away beneath the kitchen island.
I lunged toward it.
Richard shouted, “Stop her!”
My fingers reached the device just long enough to press the side buttons repeatedly.
Once.
Twice.
Again.
I had programmed the emergency sequence six weeks earlier after my brother Alex asked why I had started wearing long sleeves in summer.
The SOS required no message.
It transmitted my location and a short burst of audio to him.
Trent ripped the phone from my hand and smashed it against the counter.
“You think someone is coming to save you?”
He pulled my hair back until I was forced to look at him.
“No one is coming.”
I closed my eyes as he lifted the stick once more.
The blow never landed.
A deep vibration moved beneath the floorboards.
Then every light in the house went out at once.
The refrigerator died.
The stove light vanished.
Nicole screamed as her phone slipped from her hand.
Heavy footsteps crossed the back porch.
The door handle turned.
A flashlight beam cut through the darkness and landed directly on Trent’s weapon.
Then a man’s voice said:
“Step away from my sister.”
I knew that voice.
Alex had come.
But the two figures standing behind him were not friends.
May you like
They were sheriff’s deputies.
Cliffhanger: Trent believed the blackout was the end of his control—but the live audio attached to my SOS had already turned everyone in that kitchen into evidence.
Related Stories
