Chapter 5

The year I turned eighteen, the three of them gave me a red button.

It was linked to their private lines, the trackers in their cars, and the family security system. Alexander told me that whatever happened, if I pressed it they would be at my side immediately. Once I set the alarm off in my sleep, and in under ten minutes Alexander's car came tearing up the drive, Nathan hadn't even had time to change out of his scrubs, and Julian was still in evening dress. The three of them stood around me while I lay perfectly fine in bed, and though their faces were furious, not one of them said a word of blame.

Julian told me then that pressing it by mistake didn't matter, that they would rather come running a hundred times for nothing than miss the one time it was real.

And now the top priority contact in that emergency system had quietly been changed to Vivian. Nobody told me.

I only found out four days before the wedding.

That afternoon Vivian couldn't find my mother anywhere on the estate, and after two minutes she pressed the red button. Alexander walked out of a meeting, Nathan stopped in the middle of rounds, and Julian drove clear across the city back to the estate. When it turned out my mother had only stepped into the garden to take a call, still not one of them said a word to her about it.

"Once she's in Black Harbor she won't have us to lean on anymore." Nathan checked her cold fingers carefully. "These next few days, she needs to get used to asking for help."

That night I went into the city alone to go over a restoration plan for an old hotel. A storm swept the whole block and the power cut out. The elevator, which had reached the twelfth floor, shuddered hard, the lights went out completely, and the car hung between two floors.

The darkness closed in all at once and my palms went damp. I'd been afraid of small, enclosed spaces since childhood. In elevators Julian always stood by the control panel, Nathan kept talking to distract me, and Alexander held out his hand, claiming it was only in case I lost my balance.

In that car, there was no one but me.

My signal came and went. I pressed the red button and the screen lit up for a moment. A notice appeared: Priority contact has been changed. Your request will be handled as standard priority.

I thought I had misread it and pressed the button again. The same words came up.

I called Alexander. No answer. I called Julian and went straight to voicemail. I called Nathan last, and the line rang for a long time before the call was declined.

I made myself stay calm and left a detailed voicemail. "It's me. The elevator has broken down, the hotel has lost power, and I'm stuck between the twelfth and thirteenth floors."

I called my mother's number too. No answer there either.

I found out later that at that hour every one of them was with Vivian at her premarital counseling session. Nathan saw my call, heard the first seconds of the message, remembered the agreement the three of them had made, decided on his own that I was fighting for emergency priority, and silenced the call.

The air in the car grew stifling, and panic closed around my throat until I nearly screamed. Then I remembered a hotel guard saying the service hatch had its own intercom. I edged along the wall of the car, slammed my knee against the metal rail hard enough that the pain almost dropped me to the floor, and found the service panel in the dark. A fingernail tore back and blood ran down my fingers.

I got through to security, switched on the emergency light the way they told me to, and waited until a maintenance crew pried the doors open.

Once I was out, I didn't call anyone. I went to the emergency room alone to have my hand treated, then took a taxi back to the estate.

The moment I walked into the main hall, Vivian saw the blood on my hand and screamed. She shrank in behind my mother. "Is it because of the emergency button? I didn't know they changed the priority. I can give it back to you right now."

Eleanor's first reaction was not to ask what had happened to me. She grabbed my wrist and hid the bleeding hand behind my back. "Don't let her see blood. It's taken all day to get her calm."

Only then did Nathan notice the scrape on my knee. "What happened?"

"The hotel lost power and the elevator failed. I called all of you for help."

His face went white. "Why didn't you just call 911?"

I looked at him. "Because you told me the red button was my emergency line."

The hall went briefly silent. Julian spoke first. "I'll set up dual priority tomorrow." Alexander nodded too. "This was a settings error. It won't happen again."

"This isn't a system problem." I took the red button off my wrist and set it on the table. "You heard my message from that elevator and chose to ignore it."

Nathan's lips moved. He didn't deny it.

I pushed away the button Julian was trying to hand back to me. "I don't want protection I have to nearly die to earn back."

I went back to the Winter House to gather my documents, and in the old files my mother had stacked there that afternoon I found a complete copy of the Black Harbor contract. The substitution clause everyone had overlooked was pressed under everything else at the bottom of the desk.

I took out my phone and dialed the private number printed on the letter.

It rang once and was picked up. A low, unfamiliar voice came through. "Evelyn?"

With the voluntary fulfillment clause pinched between my fingers, I said, "Roman Blackwood, I'd like to talk to you about who the real bride should be."