Chapter 1 - THE BAT CAME DOWN
The baseball bat struck the windshield before Emily Sullivan could unlock her door.
The glass buckled inward with a violent crack. White fractures raced across the windshield, stopping inches from Emily’s face as she threw one arm over her head and wrapped the other around her seven-month belly.
Above her, balanced on the roof of the red sports car in a fitted black dress and red heels, Chelsea Reed raised the bat again.
“He chose me!” she screamed.
Three Bellhaven police officers stood near the mansion’s garage, caught between shock and command. Jason stood several feet from the passenger door in his navy suit, watching with an expression so calm that Emily noticed it even through the shattered glass.
He wasn’t surprised.
That realization frightened her more than the bat.
“Drop it!” the lead officer shouted, moving toward the car. “Drop the bat now!”
Chelsea froze with the weapon over her shoulder. Her chest rose and fell rapidly, but her grip remained tight.
Emily lowered her arm.
Twenty minutes earlier, Jason’s mother had called and said Jason wanted to discuss the baby before things became “too ugly.” Lorraine Sullivan had insisted the conversation take place at the family mansion, where everyone could remain civilized.
Emily had almost laughed at the word.
That morning, she had walked out of a prenatal appointment carrying an ultrasound photograph and found her silver SUV destroyed in the parking garage. Every window had been smashed. The tires had been slashed. Red paint covered the windshield, and three messages had been carved across the hood.
HOMEWRECKER.
BABY TRAP.
HE BELONGS TO ME.
The infant car seat in the back had been ripped apart.
Security footage showed Chelsea doing all of it, smiling and taking pictures beside the wreckage.
When Emily called her husband, Jason hadn’t asked whether she or their unborn daughter was safe.
He had only said, “Don’t make this worse than it already is.”
Now Chelsea stood on the roof of Jason’s sports car, smashing the windshield while he watched.
Emily looked through the passenger window and met her husband’s eyes.
Jason’s mouth tightened.
Then he looked away.
Something inside Emily became completely still.
She shoved the damaged driver’s door open. Chelsea stepped carefully from the roof onto the hood, still gripping the bat, while Emily climbed out sideways, using the open door as a shield for her belly.
“Emily,” Jason said quietly, taking one step closer. “She lost control. That’s all this is.”
“You knew she was coming.”
“You’re emotional.”
“My baby’s car seat was cut into pieces.”
“It’s a car seat. We can buy another one.”
One officer stared at him.
Chelsea’s mouth curled into a small, satisfied smile.
Emily reached into her handbag and removed her phone. She opened the surveillance video from the parking garage and turned it toward the lead officer.
The officer watched Chelsea swing the tire iron. He watched her slash the tires, carve the messages and destroy the infant seat.
His posture changed.
Chelsea’s smile disappeared.
“That video doesn’t show why I did it,” she said.
“There is no reason that makes this legal,” the officer replied.
Jason stepped between them. “Officer, my wife’s family has connections. Before you do anything, you should understand that she uses those connections when she feels threatened.”
Emily looked at him.
He was already building a defense.
Not for her.
For Chelsea.
The lead officer studied Emily’s face more carefully. His gaze moved to her swollen stomach, then back to the phone.
“Ma’am, what’s your full name?”
“Emily Potter Sullivan.”
Recognition flashed across his expression.
Emily kept her voice low.
“Tell Captain Guzman that Commissioner Potter’s daughter is here.”
Jason’s face lost its color.
Chelsea turned toward him, waiting for reassurance.
He gave her none.
The officer reached for his radio, but Emily raised one hand.
“My father is not handling this case,” she said. “Call the state attorney’s office. I want an outside investigator.”
Jason stared at her as if she had violated an agreement she had never made.
“Emily, think carefully.”
“I am.”
“You’re about to destroy our family.”
May you like
She looked at the bat in Chelsea’s hands, the broken windshield and the man who had watched his pregnant wife cower behind it.
“No, Jason,” she said. “I’m about to find out who already did.”
