Chapter 1 - The Sedan Victoria Never Expected to Reach the School
Emma was already on her knees when Daniel reached Bellamy Academy.
She had both arms wrapped around nine-year-old Lily, folding her camel coat around the girl as tightly as she could while Victoria stood above them with a black leather riding crop in her hand.
The polished stone lobby was almost empty in the middle of the school day. Bright daylight streamed through the enormous windows and fell across the dark-wood double entrance doors behind them.
Victoria raised the crop.
It came down across Emma’s upper back.
“Stay down, bitch,” Victoria said. “Maybe your brat will finally learn her place.”
Emma flinched but did not release Lily.
The riding crop struck her coat again.
Lily screamed into her mother’s chest.
Victoria lifted it a third time.
Then the massive double doors rattled.
Once.
Twice.
Then burst open.
Daniel strode inside and stopped.
For half a second, nothing on his face moved.
He saw Lily first.
Lavender dress. Blonde hair. One faint scrape against her cheek. Her face buried against Emma as she cried.
Then Emma.
Kneeling.
Shielding their daughter.
Then Victoria.
His current wife.
Standing over both of them with the riding crop raised.
“Victoria!”
She spun around.
The crop remained in her hand.
Daniel crossed the lobby quickly.
Lily looked up.
“Daddy…”
That one word changed something inside him.
Victoria raised the crop again, not toward Lily but toward Emma, who immediately curled farther around the child.
Daniel reached them first.
He caught the crop near Victoria’s hand and ripped it free.
It struck the stone floor with a sharp clack.
Victoria stared at him.
“Daniel, she attacked me first.”
Emma looked up in disbelief.
Daniel moved between them.
“What happened to Lily?”
Victoria opened her mouth.
Daniel saw the scrape.
Then he looked at the riding crop.
Then at Emma’s coat, where several thin dusty marks crossed the fabric.
Victoria tried again. “That woman has been poisoning Lily against me for months.”
Daniel did not answer.
His anger moved faster than his judgment.
He turned and slapped Victoria once across the cheek.
Her head snapped sideways.
She staggered backward toward the open doors and caught herself against the heavy wooden frame.
Emma remained on the floor with Lily.
Daniel did not touch Victoria again.
He stood between her and the other two.
Victoria pressed a hand against her reddening cheek.
“You’re going to regret that.”
Daniel’s breathing was hard.
Then something outside caught his attention.
He looked through the open entrance.
Victoria followed his eyes.
A sleek black sedan was turning onto the private school drive.
It moved past the stone fountain.
Straight toward them.
Victoria’s expression changed.
Not anger.
Fear.
Daniel noticed.
He took one slow step toward her and pointed outside.
“Look outside,” he said. “Your life is about to end.”
Victoria turned fully.
The sedan stopped beneath the front portico.
Her face drained of color.
Emma looked from Victoria to Daniel.
“You knew someone was coming?”
Daniel nodded.
“I was already coming here for a meeting.”
“What meeting?”
He looked at Victoria.
“The one she thought she could stop before it started.”
Victoria whispered, “Daniel, don’t.”
The rear door of the sedan opened.
A silver-haired woman stepped out carrying a narrow leather portfolio.
Eleanor Whitmore, the independent chair of Bellamy Academy’s board of trustees.
Victoria had spent six years building her reputation at Bellamy.
Donor.
Foundation vice chair.
Parent-relations committee member.
The person who always seemed to know which families belonged in which rooms.
Eleanor walked toward the open doors and stopped when she saw Emma still kneeling beside Lily.
Then she saw the riding crop on the floor.
Her expression hardened.
“What happened here?”
Victoria started speaking.
Daniel cut across her.
“Before she answers, ask her why Lily’s disciplinary record was altered three times.”
Victoria stopped.
Emma slowly looked up.
Eleanor’s attention shifted to Victoria.
“What?”
Daniel reached inside his jacket and removed a sealed school envelope.
“I have the original incident logs.”
Victoria’s eyes widened.
Daniel had not come to school because of the attack.
He had come because earlier that morning he had received proof that somebody inside Bellamy Academy had been changing the official record of what happened to Lily.
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And the person with administrative access attached to every change was Victoria.
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