Or protecting Anna from the man who'd never stopped hunting her.
6.Anna
The scream tore me from sleep. It was shrill, relentless, coming from everywhere and nowhere.
My phone. It was my phone screaming on the nightstand.
My heart slammed against my ribs, a frantic bird trying to escape a cage. For a disoriented second, I was back in the car—the smell of bourbon, the blur of streetlights, the deafening silence after the thud.
I fumbled for the phone, my fingers numb. The screen cast a malevolent blue glow across my tiny bedroom. 5:07 AM. The caller ID said 'Unknown Number.'
My blood turned to ice.
An Unknown Number didn't mean telemarketers. Not in my world. It meant Carter. Or his lawyer. Or worse, one of his friends from the firm, the ones who'd cornered me at the grocery store the week afterCarter’s conviction, with their questions and cold smiles. It had been over a year since the last hang-up, but the terror was a well-worn path in my brain.
The phone kept screaming. On the fifth ring, I finally answered, my voice a sleep-ravaged croak. "Hello?"
"Anna." My name came out ragged, desperate. Not Mr. Spencer's controlled ice, this was a man drowning. "You need to come. Now. Please."
Please?Jack Spencer said Please.
"What's wrong?" I was already throwing back the covers.
"It’s Daisy. She woke up. She's... she won't stop crying. She won't let me near her. She locked her bedroom door." The words came in a rushed, helpless torrent. "I have the override code. I didn't... I was afraid that if I used it, I'd make it worse. She just keeps saying 'no.'"
The image he painted, the powerful, controlled Jack Spencer rendered helpless outside his daughter's door, cleared the last cobwebs of sleep from my mind.
"I'm on my way. Twenty minutes."
I didn't wait for a reply. I pulled on yesterday's jeans and a sweatshirt, shoved my feet into sneakers, and grabbed my keys. The city at 5 AM was a ghost town, empty streets slick with pre-dawn dew, traffic lights blinking yellow through the gray. My mind conjured horrors: Daisy hurt, Daisy sick, Daisy asking for her mother and spiraling into some unreachable place.
Please let her be okay. Please.
I used the private garage code and took the elevator up. The moment the doors opened, I heard it. Not the loud, dramatic wails of a tantrum, but a low, heartbroken, utterly exhausted weeping. The sound of a soul in pieces.
I followed it down the hallway.
Jack was sitting on the floor, his back against the wall opposite her door. He was still dressed in the same black sweater and trousers from yesterday afternoon; they were rumpled now, the collar askew. His hair stood up on one side where he'd run his hands through it. He looked like he'd aged ten years in twelve hours.
He looked up as I approached, and the devastation in his gray eyes was absolute. He didn't speak. Just gestured weakly toward the locked door.
I walked past him and knelt on the carpet, my face close to the wood. "Daisy?" I called softly. "Sweet pea, it's Anna."
The crying hitched. A sniffle. Then a small, wet, muffled voice. "Anna?"
"Yeah, it's me. Can I come in?"
Silence. Long enough that I thought she wouldn't answer. Then—a shuffling sound. Small feet padding across carpet. A pause right on the other side of the door.
The distinct click of the lock disengaging.
The door opened a crack, revealing one swollen,red-rimmed gray eye peering through. She studied me, making sure I was real. Then it opened wider.
She stood there in her rumpled pink unicorn pajamas, her face a mess of tears, her entire small body shaking with aftershocks. She didn't say a word. She just lifted her arms.
My heart cracked open. I scooped her up, and she immediately wrapped herself around me, her legs around my waist, face buried in the hollow of my neck. Her tears were hot against my skin. I held her tight, one hand supporting her, the other stroking her hair. "I'm here," I murmured. "I'm here, sweet girl. It's okay."
Over her head, I saw Jack slowly push himself to his feet. He took a tentative step forward, his hand outstretched. "Daisy, honey, what's wrong? Can you tell Daddy what happened?"
