Chapter 4 - Melanie Steps Back
Melanie had wanted Wyatt to look at her.
That had been the purpose of the dress, the jewelry, the posture, the cold little smile.
She wanted him to see what the Davis family considered valuable.
Golden.
Polished.
Approved.
Instead, Wyatt was on his knees holding Sadie as if the rest of them did not exist.
Melanie’s face twisted.
Jealousy and fear fought across it.
“She always does this,” she said, but her voice shook.
Wyatt looked up.
The fury in his eyes made her step back.
“Does what?”
Melanie’s lips trembled.
“Turns everything into drama.”
Sadie tried to speak, but the sound came out weak.
Wyatt lowered his face close to hers.
“Don’t. Save your strength.”
Gregory’s grip tightened around the brick again.
The electrician shifted his phone toward him.
Gregory noticed and froze.
Brenda’s hand flew to her necklace.
The diamonds trembled against her throat.
“Gregory,” she whispered. “Put it down.”
He stared at her.
Only now?
Only with a camera watching?
Only when the porch had witnesses?
Wyatt’s broken smartphone lay on the steps, black screen cracked, useless beside the rose petals that had fallen from the bushes.
The electrician spoke toward his own phone, voice urgent but controlled.
“Ambulance needed at a private residence in Columbus. Adult woman injured. Family assault witnessed.”
Brenda recoiled.
“Don’t you dare call it that.”
He did not lower the phone.
“What should I call it?”
No one answered.
Sadie’s breathing shook.
Wyatt held her carefully, terrified to move too much but refusing to let her head drop.
Then Melanie looked toward the living-room window.
May you like
Her face changed.
Read Chapter 5 👉 Because the electrician’s call turned the family’s private cruelty into a record, but Melanie had just noticed someone watching from inside the house.
