Chapter 2: Four Words From My Father
The paramedics arrived within minutes.
Rosa stood beside me the entire time, pressing a cold cloth against my face while Preston hovered near the doorway, telling the medics I had "accidentally" come into contact with a cleaning product.
"Accidentally," I repeated, from the floor.
No one corrected him.
At the hospital, a doctor told me the chemical had caused significant irritation but had not permanently damaged my corneas.
I was fortunate.
Seven more minutes and the outcome would have been different.
Preston sat in the chair beside my bed and said nothing for a long time.
Then: "Mother didn't mean for it to go that far."
I turned my head toward him.
My eyes were still wrapped.
"She held the bottle to my face, Preston.
You held my arms."
"You provoked her."
I said nothing.
He leaned forward.
"I need you to understand something, Amelia.
My family has a reputation to protect.
Whatever you're thinking about doing next — I'm asking you to think carefully."
That was when my phone buzzed on the bedside table.
A message from my father.
Four words.
*We saw everything, Rose.*
I had forgotten about the security consultant my father had hired six months earlier.
The one who had quietly placed a small device inside my suitcase after I told him I was nervous about the Caldwells.
May you like
Preston did not know my father's name was on the loan documents keeping Caldwell Heritage Resorts from collapse.
He was about to find out.
