Chapter 2 - Claire Refused to Go Back Home
Claire drove only four blocks before pulling into an empty pharmacy parking lot.
Her hands were shaking.
The baby moved beneath her palm.
That movement became the only thing that mattered.
“You’re okay,” she whispered.
She wasn’t sure whether she was reassuring the baby or herself.
Claire called her obstetrician’s after-hours line and explained what had happened honestly.
No direct impact to her abdomen.
No fall.
No pain.
But severe stress and a sudden loss of balance.
Because she was seven months pregnant, the nurse advised her to come in for evaluation.
Claire called her friend Maribel Cross, who met her at the hospital.
Maribel did not ask Claire to explain Mason.
She asked one question.
“Are you going back there tonight?”
“No.”
“Good.”
The medical evaluation was reassuring.
Claire and the baby appeared physically fine.
Emotionally, Claire was somewhere between fury and disbelief.
Mason sent six messages.
Please tell me you’re safe.
I’m sorry.
Don’t come home tonight.
Please trust me on that one thing.
Claire stared at the fourth message.
Trust him?
After what he had done?
She blocked his number.
By midnight, she was in Maribel’s guest room with her handbag on the floor and a borrowed T-shirt stretched over her maternity leggings.
Sleep never came.
At 12:43 a.m., an email notification appeared from the smart-home security system.
Administrator access updated.
Claire almost ignored it.
Then she remembered Mason looking toward the camera above the doorway while yelling at her.
She opened the security app.
Most of the system had been installed two years earlier when they renovated the house.
Claire rarely touched the settings.
Mason handled that.
But her account still had owner access.
Under authorized administrators, she saw three names.
Claire Ashford.
Mason Ashford.
And one she did not recognize.
Harrow Family Management.
Claire stared at it.
Their home had never belonged to any Harrow family.
She took a screenshot.
Then another notification arrived.
Interior camera temporarily offline.
The camera above the front door had just been disabled.
Claire sat upright.
May you like
Someone had waited until she left the house.
Then someone had changed the security system.
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