Chapter 1 - THE POT HIT THE MARBLE
Caroline Mercer was on the living-room floor when Luke raised the steaming pot.
Her pale blue maternity dress had twisted around her knees. One hand covered her eight-month belly. The other gripped the edge of a marble coffee table as she tried to pull herself away.
Luke stood over her in a dark red shirt, breathing hard.
“I’ll boil that useless belly until it finally gives me a son!”
He tipped the pot.
Caroline twisted.
The water struck the marble beside her instead of her body, exploding across the floor in a cloud of steam.
Luke cursed and caught a fistful of her hair.
The front door burst open.
Two Rochester police officers came through with a third behind them. The first officer kicked the pot away and drove Luke backward against the wall before he could turn.
Luke’s face changed instantly.
“Tell them you slipped,” he hissed at Caroline. “Or I’ll finish this when they leave.”
Caroline held her belly and forced herself upright.
The words came out quieter than she expected.
“He attacked me every time I became pregnant.”
Luke lunged.
Two officers restrained him.
His phone had fallen near the sofa. Caroline grabbed it because the screen was still lit with an incoming call from Highland Hospital.
She pressed speaker.
A physician’s voice filled the room.
“Mr. Mercer, I’m calling because the records you requested don’t match what Mrs. Mercer was previously told. Genetic testing from the prior pregnancies documented male fetuses.”
Luke stopped struggling.
Caroline stared at him.
For four years he had blamed her for failing to give him a son.
An officer bent to collect broken dishes near the wall and found a thick medical envelope beneath them.
He opened it.
Then he looked at the name printed on the authorization form.
Not Luke.
Not Caroline.
May you like
Evelyn Mercer.
Luke’s mother.
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