“Scream all you want!” my mother shouted. “Austin is flying to London. Nobody is coming to save you.”

The waiting room at Scottsdale General Hospital was freezing.

I paced the linoleum floor for two hours, my clothes dried tight to my skin, my heart hammering in my chest. Every time the double doors to the emergency wing opened, I stopped breathing.

Finally, Dr. Evans, the head of obstetrics, walked out. Her face was grave.

“Mr. Wentworth?”

“Is she okay? The baby—is the baby alive?” I choked out, rushing toward her.

Dr. Evans offered a small, reassuring smile. “Your wife suffered a minor concussion, two cracked ribs, and severe facial contusions. But miraculously... the baby is fine. The fetal heartbeat is strong.”

I fell back against the wall, burying my face in my hands, letting out a ragged breath of pure relief.

“Can I see her?”

“She’s awake,” Dr. Evans nodded. “But Mr. Wentworth... there is something else. When we examined Irene, we found older bruising on her back and upper arms. Bruising in different stages of healing. Has someone been hurting her before tonight?”

The floor dropped out from beneath me.

I walked into Irene’s private room. She was lying in the hospital bed, an IV in her arm, the left side of her face bandaged.

When she saw me, tears instantly welled in her eyes. “Austin... your flight...”

“It was canceled,” I whispered, sitting on the edge of her bed and gently resting my forehead against her hand. “Irene... why didn't you tell me? The doctors said there are older bruises.”

Irene squeezed her eyes shut, a tear rolling down her cheek.

“I was terrified,” she sobbed quietly. “Your mother... she told me that if I ever breathed a word to you, she would destroy us.”

“How?” I asked gently, stroking her hair. “How could she destroy us?”

“Three months ago, when Carla got fired from her accounting job, you let her work at your investment firm,” Irene explained, her voice trembling. “Carla used her access to forge your signature on offshore transfers. She embezzled almost a million dollars from your clients.”

My blood ran cold.

“Your mother found out,” Irene continued. “But instead of turning Carla in, Margaret forged documents making it look like I was the one who stole the money. She said if I told you they were hurting me, she would take the documents to the FBI. She said they would send a pregnant woman to federal prison, and you would lose everything.”

I sat back, utterly paralyzed by the sheer magnitude of their evil.

While I was working 80-hour weeks to provide for my family, my mother and sister had been systematically torturing my wife, using blackmail and forged federal crimes to keep her silent.

Tonight, they had tried to force Irene to open the safe to get the master deeds and the last of my liquid cash before they fled the country.