CHAPTER 4 – DANIEL’S PANIC
Daniel saw the shove from below.
At first, his brain refused to understand it.
Vivian’s hands touched Emily.
Emily’s body jerked backward.
The stone steps opened beneath her.
Then Daniel was running.
He did not remember moving. He remembered only the sound—gasps, a scream, shoes scraping stone, someone yelling for help. His heart slammed against his ribs as he reached the landing and fell to his knees beside his wife.
Wife.
Even in the middle of divorce, the word rose before any legal truth could stop it.
Emily lay on her side, one arm curved around her belly, face pale with shock. Her eyes were closed. Her breathing was there but shallow. Too shallow for Daniel’s terror.
“Emily,” he said. “Emily, look at me.”
He slid one hand carefully beneath her shoulder, not lifting her, only supporting. His other hand hovered near her upper arm. He was afraid to touch too much, afraid not to touch at all.
“Stay with me!”
Bystanders formed a frozen ring. Someone called emergency services. Someone else shouted for space. A woman in a dark suit knelt near Emily’s feet and began giving calm instructions, though Daniel barely heard them.
Emily’s eyelids fluttered.
For one fragile second, her eyes opened.
They found his.
There was pain in them.
Fear.
And something worse.
Recognition.
She had known Vivian hated her. She had known the situation was dangerous. Daniel had dismissed it until it stood at the top of the courthouse steps with both hands extended.
His stomach dropped.
He looked upward.
Vivian stood near the railing, face pale, hands trembling. Behind her, witnesses in suits and formal dresses stared with wide eyes. No one moved to comfort her.
Daniel’s panic narrowed into furious clarity.
He saw everything at once:
The affair.
The excuses.
The times Emily told him Vivian was escalating.
The times he said she was overreacting.
The unborn child beneath Emily’s shaking hands.
The woman above who had decided jealousy mattered more than life.
His voice came out low and deadly.
“You pushed her.”
May you like
Vivian shook her head once.
But the crowd had already heard the truth in his voice.
