The first drop of blood hit the clinic floor, and my stepbrother smiled. “Sign it,” Will hissed, shoving legal papers into my shaking hands. “Or you’re homeless by tonight.” I’d buried my father two weeks ago. Lost my baby three days ago. As the nurse screamed for 911, I realized this wasn’t about money anymore. It was about survival—and someone was willing to kill for it.
Blood hit the cold linoleum floor before I even felt the pain. I tasted metal and heard gasps ripple through the gynecologist’s waiting room as I tried to push myself upright. Three days earlier I’d been in emergency surgery after a miscarriage at fourteen weeks. Now my stepbrother, Will Henderson, stood over me, his fist…