Chapter 1 - The Moment Sarah Found Her
Emily’s shoe slid on the rain-darkened rooftop just as Sarah reached her.
Sarah caught her around the waist.
Emily dropped hard to her knees, still clutching newborn Noah against her chest, his cream blanket wrapped tightly around him.
“Emily, I’ve got you.”
“No—no, don’t take him.”
“I’m not taking anybody.”
Sarah lowered herself beside her sister, one arm around Emily and one beneath the baby, making sure his head remained supported.
For several seconds Noah kept crying.
Then he stopped.
Emily froze.
The rooftop wind moved loose strands of hair across her wet face.
She looked down at her son.
Then at Sarah.
“What was I doing?”
The words barely came out.
Sarah’s stomach turned.
Three security employees appeared through the penthouse doorway. One already had emergency services on the phone.
Sarah tightened her hold.
“You’re staying right here with me.”
“I wasn’t going to hurt him.”
“I know.”
But Sarah didn’t know.
Not yet.
All she knew was that two hours earlier, Emily had sent her a message containing only four words.
Please come get me.
Sarah had driven from Evanston to Chicago’s Gold Coast without calling first.
At the lobby, the concierge told her something strange.
Her access to Emily’s penthouse had been removed three weeks earlier.
By request of Emily’s husband, Owen.
Sarah had argued until a building manager came down.
By the time they reached the penthouse, the front door was open.
Emily was gone.
So was Noah.
The rooftop alarm had already been triggered.
Now Sarah sat on wet concrete holding both of them while Emily stared at her own hands as if they belonged to somebody else.
The first paramedics arrived within minutes.
Emily resisted when they asked Sarah to take Noah.
“He needs me.”
Sarah touched her sister’s cheek.
“He needs you alive and okay.”
That broke something.
Emily let Sarah receive the baby.
She folded forward and began sobbing.
Inside the penthouse, Sarah found Owen’s number and called him.
No answer.
She called again.
Nothing.
A third call went straight to voicemail.
One of the paramedics asked when Emily had last slept more than two consecutive hours.
Sarah didn’t know.
When had she last eaten?
Sarah didn’t know that either.
Had Emily experienced confusion before?
Sarah opened her mouth.
Then closed it.
Because she realized she had been answering every question about her sister with the same terrible truth.
She didn’t know.
For six weeks, Owen had assured everyone that Emily was exhausted but fine.
That she wanted privacy.
That she didn’t want visitors.
That Sarah’s constant checking made things worse.
Sarah had believed him.
As they prepared to take Emily downstairs for emergency evaluation, Sarah noticed Emily staring through the open penthouse doorway.
“Where’s Owen?” Emily whispered.
“I’m calling him.”
Emily shook her head.
“No.”
Her eyes suddenly focused.
For the first time that night, Sarah saw fear that wasn’t confused.
May you like
“Don’t tell him I asked you to come.”
And Sarah understood that whatever had happened on the rooftop had begun long before Emily stepped outside.
