My stepmom snatched the family drawing I’d spent a week making and threw it in the trash — she had no idea what my dad would do next.

I drove to Elena’s mansion so fast I ran three red lights, my hands shaking on the wheel, a thousand terrible scenarios running through my head.

Had Elena hurt her?

Had she told her I was a drug addict?

Had she made her cry?

I skidded into the circular driveway, the security guards at the gate waving me through like they’d been expecting me.

I ran up the front steps and burst through the front doors.

Elena was sitting in the living room, on Daddy’s leather sofa, sipping champagne, Mia sitting stiffly on the other end of the couch, her pigtails undone, her face streaked with tears, her stuffed rabbit lying discarded on the floor.

“Mommy!” Mia screamed, jumping up and running to me.

I caught her, holding her so tight I thought I’d never let go, pressing my face into her hair, breathing in the smell of her strawberry shampoo, thanking every god I could think of that she was okay.

“One hour,” Elena said, cold, from the couch. “Supervised. No talk of court, no talk of the company, no talk of me. If you break the rules, the visit ends early. And the next one is canceled. Permanently.”

I nodded, not taking my eyes off Mia.

I carried her to the kitchen, the same kitchen where she’d thrown my drawing away, and sat her on the counter, wiping the tears off her cheeks with my sleeve.

“Are you okay, baby?” I whispered, checking her for cuts, for bruises, for anything.

She nodded, but her lip was still trembling.

“She said you don’t love me anymore,” she said, her voice small. “She said you’re sick and you have to go away for a long time. She said she’s my new mommy now.”

My heart shattered into a million tiny pieces.

I pulled her close again, rocking her back and forth.

“That’s not true,” I said, my voice thick. “That’s the biggest lie in the whole world. I love you more than the sun and the moon and all the stars. I am never going to leave you. I am never going to let anyone take you away from me again. I promise.”

She clung to my shirt, crying into my shoulder.

“I want to go home,” she sobbed. “I want Rosa. I want my bed. I don’t like it here. She yells all the time. She called me a spoiled brat when I asked for you.”

I held her tighter, my rage so big I could barely breathe.

I was going to make Elena pay for every tear Mia had shed.

Every single one.

When the hour was up, a security guard came in and told me it was time to leave.

Mia started crying again, clinging to my neck.

“Please don’t go,” she begged. “Please take me with you.”

Elena stood in the doorway, watching, a small, satisfied smile on her face.

I kissed Mia’s forehead a hundred times, whispering that I loved her, that I’d be back soon, that I was going to fix everything.

The guard had to pry her off me.

I walked out to my car, my chest aching so bad I could barely breathe.

I was just pulling out of the driveway when my phone rang.

It was Sarah.

Her voice was panicked.

“Clara,” she said. “I got the security footage from the house the night Richard died. You need to see this. Right now.”

I drove straight to her office.

She pulled up the footage on her big screen, the timestamp reading 1:17 AM, three weeks prior.

The kitchen.

Daddy was sitting at the island, pouring himself a glass of his nightly bourbon, looking tired.

A figure walked into the frame.

Elena.

She was wearing a silk nightgown, her hair down, smiling that fake sweet smile she used on Daddy.

She walked up behind him, her hand slipping into the pocket of her nightgown.

She pulled out a small, clear vial of white powder.

While Daddy was looking at his phone, she poured the entire contents into his bourbon glass, then stirred it with her finger, like she was making coffee.

Daddy picked up the glass and took a long sip.

Elena watched him, her smile never faltering.

Ten minutes later, he slumped forward, his head hitting the island with a sickening thud.

Elena didn’t call 911.

She didn’t check his pulse.

She just picked up his phone, deleted all his texts and emails, poured the rest of the bourbon down the sink, and walked out of the frame.

The screen went black.

I sat there, frozen, my blood running so cold I could barely feel my fingers.

She’d murdered him.

In cold blood.

Right there on camera.

And she’d gotten away with it.

For three weeks.

“We have to give this to the police,” Sarah said, her voice tight. “Right now. This is murder one. She’ll go away for life.”

I shook my head.

“Not yet,” I said. “If we give it to her now, she’ll run. She’ll take Mia. She’ll destroy Langford before they can arrest her. We use this as leverage first. We make her drop the custody order. We make her delay the merger vote. Then, when we have everything locked down, we give it to the FBI. She doesn’t get away with this. But I’m not losing Mia or Langford to make it happen faster.”

Sarah nodded, though her face was pale.

I called Elena from the parking lot of Sarah’s office.

She answered on the first ring, her voice smug.

“Come to beg for more time with the brat?” she said.

“I have the security footage from the kitchen the night Daddy died,” I said, no preamble. “I saw you put the powder in his drink. I saw him die. If you don’t drop the custody order by nine tomorrow morning, and delay the merger vote by two weeks, I send it to every news outlet in the country, and the FBI. You’ll spend the rest of your life in a cell. And you’ll never see a dime of Langford money ever again.”

Elena was quiet for a long time.

So long I thought she’d hung up.

Then she laughed.

It was a cold, dead sound, the kind of laugh that makes your skin crawl.

“You think you’re so smart,” she said, her voice low. “You think you’ve won. But you have no idea what I’m capable of, Clara. You have no idea how deep this goes. Fine. I’ll drop the custody order. I’ll delay the vote. But if you release that footage before the two weeks are up? I have men standing by at Mia’s school. They’ll take her out of the country before the police even get the call. Do you understand me?”

She hung up.

I sat there for a long time, staring at my phone.

I knew she wasn’t bluffing.

I called Marcus, telling him to double the security on Mia, to have men on the school roof, on every corner, to make sure no one could get within fifty feet of her.

I was just about to drive back to Rosa’s when my phone pinged again.

Another email from the same unknown sender.

This one had a video attachment.

I pressed play.

It was footage from inside Mia’s bedroom at Elena’s house, taken the night before.

Mia was asleep in the big guest bed, her rabbit tucked under her arm.

A figure walked into the frame.

Elena.

She stood over the bed for a long time, staring down at Mia.