Chapter 1 - SIX TIMES
Julian’s palm struck my cheek and sent me into the marble doorframe.
The impact cracked my phone screen and drove the breath from my lungs.
That was the sixth time.
I knew because I counted every blow.
The first came when I asked why Sienna Miller was sitting at my dining table.
The second came when I saw my pearl earrings in her ears.
The third followed my demand that she remove them.
By the fourth, Julian had stopped pretending he was defending an innocent friendship.
By the fifth, he was shouting that everything beneath the roof belonged to him.
The sixth knocked me toward the open front door.
“Get out, Clara!” he roared. “Outside this house, your only option is to become a beggar.”
Rain hammered the driveway beyond him.
Sienna stood several feet behind my husband in my pale silk robe, one hand resting against the dining-room arch as if she already owned the room.
I pressed my palm against my burning cheek.
“Julian…”
“Out.”
He seized my overnight bag and threw it into the storm.
The zipper burst open when it struck the front walk. A blouse, medication pouch, and pair of shoes spilled into the water.
Sienna laughed.
“You heard him. This house was never yours.”
Julian grabbed my arm.
I pulled away, but I had no shoes and nowhere inside the house he would allow me to stand.
I stepped into the rain.
The cold hit instantly.
By the time I reached the security gate, blood had begun mixing with the water running from my mouth.
The gate opened remotely.
Then it closed behind me.
I sat on the curb beneath a streetlamp and held my cracked phone with both hands.
Julian slammed the front door.
The sound traveled through the storm.
I called my father.
Arthur answered on the second ring.
“Clara?”
My throat closed.
“Dad… he slapped me six times and threw me into the rain.”
The silence on the line was not confusion.
It was control.
“Are you safe?”
“No.”
“Send me your location. Do not return to the house. Do not answer Julian. Security, a doctor, and the police are being contacted now.”
I looked toward the dark windows.
“Show him no mercy.”
My father’s breath slowed.
“Then mercy is over.”
Headlights appeared at the end of the street.
Two black SUVs turned toward me.
Julian reopened the front door.
His face changed when he saw them.
Sienna stepped beside him, still wearing my robe.
The first SUV stopped at the curb. Arthur’s security director, Malcolm Reed, emerged with a female physician and two officers.
Malcolm draped a coat around my shoulders.
“Mrs. Sterling, we need to document your condition before anyone moves you.”
Julian started down the front walk.
“This is private property.”
One officer raised a hand.
“Remain where you are.”
Sienna whispered something to him.
Julian’s attention shifted from me to the phone in Malcolm’s hand.
A notification glowed across the screen.
Malcolm looked at it, then at the house.
“Clara,” he said quietly, “did you authorize a transfer of this property tonight?”
“I didn’t authorize anything.”
Julian stopped moving.
Malcolm turned the screen toward me.
May you like
A deed transfer had been submitted fourteen minutes before Julian threw me outside.
My signature appeared at the bottom.
