Chapter 2 - THE CALL EMMA SWORE SHE WOULD NEVER MAKEFor seven years, Emma had refused to call Julian Ashford.
“Twenty minutes,” Emma said as they stepped off the curb outside the pediatric clinic in downtown Boston. “Then hot chocolate.”
Lucy squeezed her mother’s hand.
“With marshmallows?”
“Two.”
“Three.”
Emma smiled. “You negotiate like your father.”
Lucy’s smile vanished almost immediately.
She rarely heard Emma mention him.
Before she could ask anything, a scream of tires tore through the afternoon traffic.
Emma turned.
A silver Bentley was racing toward the crosswalk.
“Lucy!”
Emma pulled her daughter backward.
She wasn’t fast enough.
The front corner of the Bentley struck Lucy and threw the little girl onto the pavement.
For one terrible second, Emma heard nothing.
Then Lucy screamed.
“Mommy!”
Emma dropped beside her.
Blood ran from a cut near Lucy’s temple. Her small left arm rested at an unnatural angle.
“Oh God. Baby, look at me.”
“It hurts.”
“I know. Don’t move.”
People gathered.
Someone called 911.
The driver’s door opened.
A woman stepped onto the street wearing white designer heels, oversized sunglasses, and an ivory coat that probably cost more than Emma earned in six months.
Vanessa Corvo looked at the dent in her Bentley before she looked at the injured child.
“You ran into the street,” Vanessa snapped.
Emma stared at her.
“She was in the crosswalk.”
Vanessa pulled off her sunglasses.
Her expression held annoyance, not fear.
“Do you know how difficult that paint is to match?”
Several witnesses gasped.
Emma rose slowly.
“My daughter is bleeding.”
“And my car is damaged.”
Lucy whimpered behind her.
Emma’s hands curled into fists.
“You nearly killed her.”
Vanessa gave a short laugh.
“Careful.”
“Careful?”
“You have no idea who you’re talking to.”
Emma glanced at Lucy.
Her daughter’s eyes were closing.
“Lucy! Stay awake.”
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Vanessa stepped closer.
“My attorneys will handle whatever medical expenses are appropriate. Assuming you don’t turn this into something ridiculous.”
Emma looked at her as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“Appropriate?”
“You people always see an opportunity.”
Something inside Emma went cold.
She didn’t argue.
She knelt beside Lucy again.
The ambulance arrived moments later.
As paramedics stabilized Lucy’s neck and lifted her onto a stretcher, Emma climbed inside.
Before the doors closed, Vanessa called after her.
“Tell the hospital to send the bill to my office.”
Emma stared back.
“You’re going to regret what you did today.”
Vanessa smiled.
“I never regret anything.”
The ambulance doors slammed shut.
Forty minutes later, Lucy was undergoing emergency scans at St. Matthew’s Children’s Hospital.
Emma sat alone outside the trauma room with blood on her blouse.
A doctor finally approached.
“Mrs. Ashford?”
Emma stood.
“Is she okay?”
“Your daughter has a fractured arm, two cracked ribs, and a concussion. We’re watching for internal bleeding.”
Emma gripped the chair beside her.
“Can I see her?”
“In a few minutes.”
The elevator doors opened.
Emma glanced up.
Vanessa Corvo walked onto the floor carrying a luxury handbag.
Behind her came two attorneys.
And Vanessa was smiling.
Emma’s stomach turned.
Vanessa stopped ten feet away.
“I thought we should resolve this quickly.”
One attorney opened a folder.
Vanessa continued.
“We’re prepared to offer you twenty-five thousand dollars in exchange for a confidentiality agreement and a release of liability.”
Emma stared at the paperwork.
“My daughter is still being examined.”
“And you should be grateful she’s alive.”
Emma’s face changed.
Vanessa leaned closer.
“You’re a single mother, aren’t you?”
Emma said nothing.
“My people already checked. Small apartment. Ordinary job. No husband listed at your address.”
Vanessa smiled again.
“So take the money.”
Emma slowly pushed the papers back.
“No.”
Vanessa blinked.
“No?”
“You’re going to answer for what you did.”
The smile disappeared.
“You really don’t understand how this city works.”
“Maybe not.”
Vanessa stepped closer.
“My family owns companies that employ thousands of people. Judges attend our charity dinners. Police commissioners take our calls.”
Emma looked straight into her eyes.
“You should leave.”
Vanessa laughed.
Then she said the one name she believed ended every argument.
“My father plays golf with Julian Ashford.”
Emma froze.
Vanessa mistook the reaction for fear.
“That name means something to you?”
Emma looked toward the trauma-room doors.
She thought of the man Lucy had never met.
The man Emma had spent seven years keeping out of her daughter’s life.
“Yes,” she whispered.
Vanessa smiled triumphantly.
“Then you understand.”
Emma looked back at her.
“No.”
Her voice became quiet.
“You don’t.”
Because Julian Ashford wasn’t merely one of the most powerful businessmen in America.
He was Lucy’s father.
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And when he discovered what Vanessa Corvo had done to his daughter—
Emma knew the entire city was about to change.
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