LOGINHarrison’s POV“I’m sorry about the children,” she said suddenly.“Focus on yourself right now.”“No, I’m sorry about the stalking. The photographs. Following them to school. Photographing Lucas through the—”She stopped. A breath caught in her chest and she had to wait it out, her grip tightening on my wrist.“Through the fence. And Chloe. Approaching Chloe at the cafeteria. I did that. I actually did that, Harrison, I crouched down next to a seven-year-old girl and I—”“Lyndsey—”“I need to say it,” she said raggedly. “I got a flat specifically to watch you. Both of you. I memorized your schedules and I mapped the cameras at the school and I knew where every blind spot was because I walked the perimeter until I—”The contraction hit. Her body arched off the stretcher and her fingers dug into my wrist so hard I felt the bones grind. I hissed, forcing myself to not wrench my hand away.The paramedic leaned forward. Lyndsey’s eyes squeezed shut and her mouth pulled into a grimace.Her
Harrison’s POVLyndsey grip on my forearm loosened slightly. A small, jerky movement.“Lyndsey,” Helena said firmly. “Look at me.”She turned her head slowly. Her eyes found her mother’s.“Fifteen minutes,” she said. “That’s all. The ambulance is coming.”Lyndsey nodded.“Can you move?” I asked.She shook her head.“That’s fine. You stay where you are.”Helena sat there for exactly one second, taking it all in—her daughter on the floor, the shattered glass, the knocked table, me on my knees with Lyndsey’s hand locked around my arm.“Towels,” I said sharply over Lyndsey’s head. “And a pillow.”Helena finally stood and vanished through the broken doorway. She came back thirty seconds later with both and handed them through the doorway without stepping into the room.I worked the pillow behind Lyndsey’s lower back, easing her away from the hard edge of the bed frame. She whimpered when I shifted her, a high, thin sound that caught in her throat.“Sorry,” I murmured. “I know. Just a secon
Harrison’s POV“Lyndsey, listen to me!” I yelled. “This isn’t about us. None of that matters right now. I need you to open this door!”I pressed my ear against the wood.Through the thick oak I could hear breathing. It was shallow and irregular. A small sound between breaths, almost a whimper but not quite.I pulled back and looked at the heavy door.It was original to the house, probably a hundred years old, the kind of door that was built when people wanted their rooms sealed shut against drafts and servants and unwanted visitors.I wasn’t going to shoulder through that.I looked up and down the corridor. A marble-topped table sat against the wall about ten feet away with ornate legs and a vase of flowers on top.Useless.Further along, a wooden chest.Too wide.The fire extinguisher.It hung on the wall near the top of the staircase, bright red against the cream wallpaper. I walked to it, lifted it off the bracket, and carried it back. It was heavy—maybe thirty pounds—the metal cyl
Harrison’s POVEstelle’s jaw shifted slightly.She crossed her arms over her chest, the sweatshirt bunching at her elbows. The motion pushed her breasts up and I looked up, trying my best to look into her eyes instead.“Right,” she said quietly.“I need to go.”“I know you do.”I opened my mouth.There were things I wanted to say—explanations, reassurances, something about how I knew this looked, how I knew what she was watching me do, how going to a woman who had stalked our children while she stood barefoot in a doorway was not what either of us would have chosen.“Don’t,” Estelle said gently.I shut my mouth.She unfolded her arms and rested one hand on the doorframe. Her thumb rubbed slowly along the wood, back and forth, a small unconscious movement.“I’ve got him,” she said simply.I nodded. My throat had gone thick and I didn’t trust myself to speak without my voice doing something embarrassing. I turned toward the stairs.“Harrison.”I stopped. I looked back.She hadn’t moved
Harrison’s POVI looked at Lucas.His grey eyes—Estelle’s eyes, Chloe’s eyes—were fixed on mine, and behind the childish frown there was something older and steadier.He’d heard Lydnsey’s name on the phone. He’d heard the word labor, or he’d heard the way I’d spoken, or he’d put it together from the speed of my movements and the way I couldn’t stop checking my pockets.“Yes,” I said shortly.Lucas nodded once. He tied his left shoe in silence, stood up, and walked to the door.In the car I pulled out my phone and typed one-handed while Lucas buckled himself into the backseat.Lyndsey in labor. Premature. Going now.I hit send and dropped the phone into the cupholder. The screen flashed Estelle’s name and then went dark.I reversed out of the parking space too fast and the tires scraped the curb. Lucas grabbed the door handle.“Sorry,” I muttered, straightening the wheel.The roads were mostly empty. I took the turn onto the high street at speed, checking the rearview mirror every few
Harrison’s POVLucas was building something on the living room floor.I couldn’t tell what it was yet. He’d spread the Lego across the carpet in a wide semicircle around his knees, the instruction booklet open but face-down, which meant he’d abandoned the official design somewhere around step four and gone rogue.I stood at the kitchen counter scraping the last of the pasta sauce into the bin. The pan was still warm. Two plates sat in the sink, one mostly clean, one smeared with tomato where Lucas had pushed his food around without finishing it.The flat was quiet in the particular way it got on weeknights when only one child was here.Not empty, exactly. Just lopsided. One bedroom door open, one shut. One pair of trainers kicked off by the front door instead of two.Chloe was at home with Estelle. We’d been doing this for a few weeks now—splitting the children between us on alternating nights, trading off at school pickup, texting logistics about toothbrushes and spelling workbooks.
Estelle’s POVI rinsed the washcloth one more time and wrung it out hard, water dripping into the sink. Chloe watched me with those almond-shaped grey eyes—Harrison’s eyes—and I had to look away.“Go find Aunt Daisy,” I said quietly, turning her toward the door. “Ask her to show you the toys she bro
Estelle’s POVI twisted my wrist hard and his fingers slipped away completely. I shoved past him, my shoulder hitting his chest as I moved.“Leave,” I said harshly, not looking at him. “Get out of my house. Don’t ever show up here again. Don’t disrupt our lives!”I grabbed the door handle and yanked
Harrison’s POVDaddy. The word stopped everything.I froze completely in the doorway, my hand still raised from knocking. My brain stuttered trying to make sense of what I’d just heard, because it couldn’t be right, couldn’t mean what I thought it meant.Then a little girl appeared from the living r
Estelle’s POVI reached behind me and squeezed Karl’s back quickly, my fingers pressing into his shirt, and he stiffened for half a second before he got what I was asking.He stepped forward immediately and extended his hand toward Harrison smoothly. “I’m Karl,” he said warmly. “Estelle’s husband. I







