Chapter 1 - The Bruise on Maisie’s Arm
The first thing Ethan Carter noticed was not Corinne.
It was Maisie's scream.
He had been in the study finishing an email when the sound ripped through the house.
“DADDY! HELP ME!”
At fourteen months old, Maisie knew only a handful of words.
Daddy was one of them.
Ethan ran into the living room.
Corinne had one hand twisted into Maisie's hair and was dragging the toddler away from the sofa.
Maisie’s pale pink pajamas were bunched around her knees. Her bare feet scraped across the oak floor.
The teddy bear never left her hands.
For half a second, Ethan simply stared.
Then he moved.
“What the hell are you doing?”
Corinne tried to pull Maisie behind her.
Ethan caught her wrist.
Maisie immediately crawled behind his legs.
Corinne grabbed for the teddy bear instead.
Ethan shoved her away.
Everything happened too quickly after that.
Corinne lost balance and slammed against the sofa.
Then she froze.
Her expression changed.
Ethan saw blood.
Not from an obvious external wound.
Corinne pressed both hands against her lower abdomen and stared at him in horror.
“You…”
Ethan's anger vanished.
“What is this?”
Corinne's face crumpled.
“Did you kill our child?”
The room went silent.
Ethan lifted her instinctively.
Hospital.
Whatever else had happened could wait.
He carried Corinne toward the front door.
Maisie ran after him crying, clutching the bear.
Then Ethan stopped under the streetlight.
A memory hit him so hard he nearly dropped Corinne.
Two years earlier.
Boston.
Dr. Andrew Morrow.
The vasectomy reversal that failed.
Then the follow-up tests.
Then the final sentence.
Mr. Carter, natural conception is effectively impossible.
Ethan slowly lowered Corinne.
His face emptied.
“That’s not right.”
Corinne went pale.
Ethan grabbed her shoulders.
“How could you be pregnant?”
She said nothing.
“I can't have children anymore.”
Maisie reached him and grabbed his trouser leg.
Corinne looked at the child.
Not Ethan.
Maisie.
That was when Ethan noticed something he had missed earlier.
A fading bruise on Maisie's upper arm.
Small.
Finger-shaped.
Ethan's voice dropped.
“Who did that?”
Corinne stared at the bruise.
Then whispered:
“She isn't yours either.”
Ethan stopped breathing.
Maisie pressed herself against him.
Corinne began crying.
“I tried to tell you.”
“No.”
“You don't understand.”
“Then explain.”
Corinne looked toward the dark house.
Toward the teddy bear.
May you like
Then back at Ethan.
“If you open that bear, everything ends.”
