Chapter 1 - THE CRY BEHIND THE HOUSE
Use the supplied opening as the official Chapter 1.
It ends with Daniel Mercer discovering his twenty-four-year-old daughter Emily bound to a chair inside an old warehouse behind her mother’s property.
Her face is bruised.
Her wrists are tied.
Around her lie trust papers, transfer documents, and a power of attorney naming her stepfather, Victor Hale.
Victor enters carrying a crowbar.
Laura follows.
Daniel frees Emily, moves her behind him, slides the steel bolt across the warehouse door, and presses a button on his phone.
Victor laughs.
“You trapped yourself.”
Daniel looks at him.
“No.”
Then he says:
“**I trapped you. Now let’s see how happy you are when my people arrive.**”
What Victor does not understand is that Daniel’s “people” are not hired gunmen.
They are the emergency-response team attached to the forensic security firm Daniel still controls—and the button he pressed has already transmitted his location, live audio, and a duress alert to local law enforcement.
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Victor has approximately seven minutes before the warehouse stops being a private family secret.
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