Julia had left food in a small freezer and books to read, a gas fireplace for heat, as if she’d been planning Sophia’s imprisonment all along. Bile rose up in her throat, and her stomach squeezed painfully. She grabbed a pillow from the back of the couch, hugged it tight, and started plotting her revenge.

If and when Julia ever dared show up again, Sophia would be waiting.

But what if she doesn’t? What if she leaves you up here to die? Alone? Waiting? Never knowing.

It’s not as if she hasn’t killed before.

Sophia set her jaw. If Julia had wanted her dead, she would have killed her already.

No. She was coming back.

And then, Sophia vowed, the tables would be turned.

* * *

Rain was pouring from the heavens as James took the exit off the freeway and drove into the heart of Seattle.

He’d spent two restless days trying to pull his life together and think straight after Sophia’s announcement that she was pregnant.

He was going to be a father.

He’d been shell-shocked at first.

And still couldn’t believe it.

She had every reason to lie, and he knew it, but would she really be that devious? He intended to find out.

He’d told her he needed some space, that he had to process the news and get his mind straight. She’d been wounded, but couldn’t do much more than agree. That wouldn’t last long. So he had to work fast.

Hence his quick trip over the mountains to this city set steep on a hillside, views of the gray waters of Elliott Bay visible through skyscrapers that knifed into the clouds.

He mentally berated himself for trusting in her birth control. He’d been an idiot. But what was done was done. And he could handle being a father. But first, he insisted on going with her to a doctor’s appointment to confirm the pregnancy.

He pulled into a parking structure in the heart of the city and parked on the fifth floor, taking the stairs down to the street, where rain was falling steadily. Turning up his collar, he walked to the waterfront and watched seagulls swoop over the churning water of the bay, where a ferry was just leaving the dock.

The thought of marriage had flitted in and out of James’s head, and he told himself it was the right thing to do, the only thing to do.

If she was pregnant.