Chapter 7 - The Silent Alarm
At 4:13 that morning, hours before Grant tossed the makeup box onto the bed, I was wide awake. The pain in my cheek was a steady, throbbing reminder of my reality. While Grant slept soundly beside me, completely oblivious in his arrogance, I slipped out of bed and crept up to the attic.
I retrieved my hidden phone and opened my encrypted files. I uploaded the newest photographs of my face, appending them to a massive digital folder that already contained three years' worth of emergency-room reports, covert audio recordings of his violent threats, and bank statements showing large sums of money mysteriously missing from my private inheritance account.
Then, I opened a secure messaging app and sent one single text to a number saved only as 'J'.
He did it again. Come at six today. Do not warn him.
I sat in the dark, watching the screen, my heart hammering against my ribs. I knew the risk I was taking. If Grant woke up and found me, he might actually kill me.
The reply came less than sixty seconds later.
May you like
I’m coming. This ends tonight.
I closed the chat, deleted the app from the burner phone, and hid the device away for the last time. A strange, cold calm washed over me.
