Chapter 1 - The Night Anna Disappeared|
The black SUV smelled faintly of leather and rain.
Anna Calloway sat in the back seat with her coat wrapped around her teal dress, watching Chicago slide past the tinted windows. The man beside her had introduced himself as Marcus Reed, although she suspected that was not the name on his birth certificate. He had said very little since collecting her from the diner. Every few minutes, he checked the side mirror, then the road behind them.
Anna had spent three years learning to recognize the difference between a man who was quiet because he had nothing to say and one who was quiet because he had been trained not to say the wrong thing.
Marcus belonged to the second category.
“Where are you taking me?”
“To Mr. Calloway’s residence.”
“No.”
He glanced at her.
“Mrs. Calloway, your father-in-law requested that you be brought somewhere secure.”
“I heard you the first time. I said no.”
“The circumstances are complicated.”
“My marriage has been complicated for three years. I’m not interested in adding kidnapping to the list.”
Marcus almost smiled, but something in her expression stopped him.
“I’m not kidnapping you. The rear doors are unlocked. You can leave whenever you want.”
Anna tested the handle.
It opened.
That small discovery unsettled her more than a locked door might have. Whoever had sent Marcus apparently understood that forcing her would be a mistake.
“Then tell me what’s happening.”
He looked toward the driver, who kept his eyes on the road.
“Your husband received a call shortly after you left the hotel. Someone reported that you were seen speaking to a man outside the gala.”
“I spoke to a waiter and a diner owner.”
“Apparently, that isn't the information Mr. Calloway received.”
Anna turned toward the window.
For three years, Daniel had treated her as if she were too ordinary to understand his world. He traveled without explaining where he went, received calls at impossible hours, and occasionally returned home with bruises he attributed to business disagreements.
She had believed him because believing him had been easier than admitting she was married to a stranger.
Now his father had sent an armed man to collect her from a diner.
The SUV turned through iron gates and climbed a long driveway bordered by bare trees. Beyond them stood a sprawling stone mansion overlooking Lake Michigan. Its windows glowed against the dark, and security cameras followed the vehicle as it approached.
Anna had visited the house twice before. Both times, Edward Calloway had greeted her in a formal sitting room, asked about her family, and dismissed her with the polite efficiency of a man concluding a business meeting.
Tonight, armed guards stood outside the entrance.
Marcus opened her door.
“Mr. Calloway is waiting.”
“Of course he is.”
Anna stepped out into the cold.
Inside, the entrance hall smelled of polished wood and expensive flowers. Two men stood near the staircase, their jackets hanging strangely around their waists. A woman in a charcoal suit approached and offered to take Anna’s coat.
Anna kept it.
“I'll wait for Mr. Calloway here.”
“He’s in the study.”
“Then he can come here.”
The woman hesitated before disappearing down the corridor.
A minute later, Edward Calloway emerged.
He wore a dark suit without a tie. His silver hair was neatly combed, and his expression held the same controlled patience Anna remembered from family dinners.
“You look tired,” he said.
“I was enjoying a perfectly ordinary cup of coffee until your security team arrived.”
“I apologize for the inconvenience.”
“Then explain it.”
Edward studied her for several seconds.
“Daniel tells me you intend to leave him.”
“Daniel has had three years to notice I was unhappy. I’m surprised he noticed me leaving.”
Something shifted behind Edward’s eyes.
“Come into the study.”
“No. You can tell me here.”
For the first time, Edward appeared genuinely interested in her.
“You're not frightened?”
“I’m frightened. I’m simply tired of letting fear make my decisions.”
He glanced toward the guards, then back at her.
“Very well. Your husband is not merely a businessman, Anna. Neither am I.”
Anna waited.
Edward lowered his voice.
“The Calloway family controls an organization that has operated in Chicago for decades. Some of our businesses are legitimate. Some are not. People who challenge us sometimes disappear from their comfortable lives.”
The words seemed to drain the warmth from the room.
“You’re telling me my husband is involved in organized crime.”
“I’m telling you that the man you married has inherited responsibilities you never understood.”
“And you think that gives him permission to humiliate me?”
“No.”
“Then why am I here?”
Edward's expression hardened.
“Because someone at the gala learned you were considering leaving Daniel. Someone who has been waiting for that moment for a very long time.”
Before Anna could respond, the study door opened behind him.
Daniel stood in the doorway.
His tuxedo jacket was gone. His white shirt was unbuttoned at the throat, and a thin red line crossed one knuckle.
He looked at Anna's coat, then at her face.
“You made quite a scene tonight.”
Anna stared at him.
She had imagined this reunion a dozen times during the drive. She had imagined anger, pleading, perhaps even an apology.
She had not imagined how little she would feel when he spoke.
“I left a party,” she said. “If that qualifies as a scene, your family has a remarkably low threshold for embarrassment.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“You don't understand what you've done.”
“No, Daniel. That's the problem. I never understood what you were doing, where you were going, or why you stopped treating me like your wife.”
His jaw tightened.
Edward moved between them.
“Enough. Anna stays here tonight.”
Daniel looked at his father.
“You don't get to decide that.”
“Tonight, I do.”
For one startling moment, the two men looked less like father and son than rival commanders negotiating a cease-fire.
Anna noticed something else.
Neither man had asked whether she wanted to stay.
She took off her wedding ring and placed it on the narrow table beside the entrance.
“I'm leaving my marriage,” she said. “I haven't decided whether I'm leaving this house alive, but I am leaving that marriage.”
Daniel looked at the ring.
For the first time that night, his composure cracked.
“You don't mean that.”
Anna walked toward the staircase, not because she intended to stay, but because she needed a moment alone to think.
Behind her, Edward spoke quietly.
“Daniel, if she leaves now, the people who have been watching this family will know she's unprotected.”
Anna stopped on the first step.
She turned.
“Who is watching your family?”
Neither man answered.
Then a gunshot exploded outside the mansion.
May you like
The lights went out.
And somewhere in the darkness, a man screamed Anna's name.
