Chapter 20 - The Open Horizon
The morning sun washed over the hardwood floors of the dining room, illuminating the fresh yellow daisies in the center table, the school permission slips, and the scattered art supplies of two very happy, very safe five-year-olds.
Willa was in the kitchen, humming softly as she packed her schoolbag for her final exams of the semester, her future bright and wide open, untainted by the dark shadows of the past.
I stood by the open front door, letting the warm spring breeze drift through the house. My memoir was sitting at the number one spot on the New York Times bestseller list. My children were laughing in the backyard, chasing each other through the green grass with boundless, untamed joy.
Graham Vance was a distant, faded ghost, buried deep in the frozen mountains of Colorado, completely powerless over the life we had built.
I stepped out onto the porch, looking down the long, sunlit driveway that stretched out toward the open Texas road.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out, expecting another media interview request or a publisher update. Instead, it was an unknown number, displaying a local Dallas area code.
I swiped the screen and pressed it to my ear.
"Hello?" I asked, my voice calm and steady.
May you like
For a long moment, there was only static on the line, followed by the heavy, rhythmic breathing of someone who sounded like they were standing in a very small, very enclosed space. Then, a voice spoke—a voice I hadn't heard in months, raspy, distorted by a prison payphone connection, yet unmistakably chilling.
"Elena... you thought you won everything, didn't you?" Graham’s voice hissed through the speaker, dripping with a terrifying, unhinged calm. "You forgot about the safety deposit box in Zurich."
