Chapter 1 - WHY HE SHOOK
Nicholas Reed had Abigail’s bruised wrist pinned to the hospital mattress when Colonel Helen Mercer walked through the door.
Abigail cried out. Her torn white dress had been cut away at one shoulder, and dried blood darkened the lace near her ribs. Nicholas stood beside the bed in a navy suit, his blond hair still neat, as though he had stepped out of a fundraiser instead of an emergency room.
Helen crossed the room before he could release her.
She clamped one hand around his forearm.
“Take your hand off my daughter.”
Nicholas looked directly at the silver eagle on Helen’s Army uniform.
“Your rank means nothing here.”
Helen tightened her grip just enough to make him understand that she was not using rank.
She was using restraint.
Abigail pulled her wrist against her chest. Purple marks circled the skin beneath the hospital band.
Nicholas leaned toward Helen, lowering his voice.
“She lies when she loses control.”
Abigail’s shoulders began to shake beneath the blanket.
Helen had received Nicholas’s call less than two hours earlier. He said Abigail had fallen at his family’s anniversary gala in McLean. He said she was confused, combative, and ashamed. Helen had driven from Fort Belvoir believing she was coming to comfort her injured daughter.
Instead, Abigail looked as though she had been trying to escape.
Helen kept herself between the bed and Nicholas.
“What happened to her?”
“She had another episode.”
Abigail stared at the ceiling.
Nicholas tried to pull his arm free. Helen held firm.
“They locked me away,” Abigail whispered.
Nicholas’s mouth hardened.
Helen looked down at her daughter. “Who locked you away?”
Abigail did not answer immediately.
Her breathing slowed.
The fear disappeared from her expression so suddenly that Helen almost mistook it for calm.
Then Abigail turned her head toward Nicholas and said one quiet phrase.
“Room 214.”
Nicholas’s fingers opened.
May you like
His hand froze above the mattress.
For the first time since Helen entered, he looked terrified.
