Chapter 1 - Call Whoever You Want
My father had one hand tangled in my hair when my water broke.
“Dad, stop! I’m pregnant!”
Charles Baldwin didn’t stop.
At fifty-six, my father still believed anger was authority. He dragged me across the kitchen of the house where I had lived with my husband for six years, while my bare feet slipped against polished hardwood and my eight-month belly made every attempt to resist terrifying.
Three weeks earlier, Lucas Gallagher had died on a highway outside Syracuse.
Now my father had apparently decided grief made me easy to rob.
“Charles, look at her!” Courtney said.
For half a second, I thought my twenty-four-year-old stepmother was horrified.
Then she laughed.
My father jerked open the front door and shoved me onto the porch.
I landed on one knee.
Pain shot through my body.
Then warmth ran down my legs.
I froze.
“My water…”
Charles stared.
“My water just broke.”
Courtney covered her mouth.
She was still smiling.
“Perfect timing.”
Something inside me went quiet.
Not weak.
Quiet.
Charles threw my handbag beside me.
“This house isn’t yours anymore. Lucas left debts. I’m fixing the mess before you make it worse.”
“That’s my house.”
“It was Lucas’s.”
“My name is on the deed.”
For the first time, uncertainty flickered across his face.
Only briefly.
Then arrogance returned.
“Call whoever you want.”
So I did.
I pulled out my phone.
Not 911.
Not first.
I called Samantha Vance.
Lucas’s attorney answered immediately.
“Victoria?”
“My father attacked me. He’s inside the house. My water broke, and he says he’s selling everything.”
Silence.
Then Samantha’s voice changed.
“Call 911 immediately. Put me on speaker while you do it from another phone if necessary. Do not sign anything. Do not give Charles access to Lucas’s files.”
Through the doorway, I watched Dad open Lucas’s desk.
Too late.
“Samantha, he’s already searching.”
“Victoria, listen carefully. Charles contacted my office yesterday.”
My blood went cold.
“He did what?”
“He claimed you authorized him to liquidate Lucas’s estate.”
“I never authorized anything.”
“I know.”
Sirens sounded somewhere beyond our street.
Then Samantha said something I didn’t understand.
“If he forged your signature, he may have triggered Lucas’s fraud clause.”
“What fraud clause?”
“Lucas established protections after your wedding. The house, several investment accounts and your interest in Baldwin-Gallagher Logistics are held through structures Charles cannot legally control.”
I stared through the doorway at my father.
Baldwin-Gallagher Logistics.
My father’s company.
Or at least I had always believed it was.
“Why would Lucas control anything involving Dad’s company?”
Samantha hesitated.
“Victoria…”
Inside, Charles’s phone rang.
He answered smugly.
“Yes?”
His smile disappeared.
“What do you mean frozen?”
Courtney stopped laughing.
Charles looked through the open doorway at me.
And Samantha whispered into my ear:
“Your father apparently never told you who actually owns Baldwin-Gallagher Logistics.”
A contraction ripped through me.
May you like
I doubled over.
And before Charles could demand another answer from whoever was calling him, two police cruisers turned onto our street.
