Chapter 1 - The Woman by the Elevator
Jackson Reed had learned that money could buy almost anything except an answer.
For three years, he had paid investigators, attorneys, former police officers, and private security firms to search for one woman.
Emily Carter.
The woman who had saved his life.
The woman who had vanished before he could thank her.
And the woman everyone insisted had left the country.
On a cold Friday evening, Jackson walked through the marble lobby of the Grand Whitmore Hotel in Manhattan, barely listening to the hotel manager beside him. The place shimmered with chandeliers and polished brass. Businessmen crossed the reflective floor while couples gathered near the restaurant.
Jackson was supposed to attend a charity dinner upstairs.
He never made it to the elevator.
“Sir…”
The manager stopped.
Jackson turned impatiently.
The man's face had changed.
“What?”
The manager pointed discreetly across the lobby.
“That’s the woman who saved your life.”
Everything inside Jackson went silent.
Near the elevators stood a young woman wearing the black-and-white uniform of the hotel's housekeeping staff.
Short platinum-blonde hair.
Pale skin.
Those unmistakable eyes.
Jackson stopped breathing.
“Emily?”
The woman froze.
A tray nearly slipped from her hands.
Their eyes met across twenty feet of polished marble.
Three years disappeared.
Jackson remembered rain.
Broken glass.
Blood running into his eyes.
A woman's voice begging him to stay awake.
Hands pulling him from a wrecked car seconds before flames swallowed it.
He remembered waking in a hospital and asking for her.
Nobody knew where she was.
Later, he was told Emily had left America.
Jackson had never believed it.
Now she was standing directly in front of him.
“Emily.”
He stepped forward.
Her face drained of color.
Instead of smiling, she backed toward the elevator.
“Wait.”
She shook her head.
“Jackson, don't.”
Hearing his name in her voice hit him harder than seeing her.
“You know me.”
“Please.”
He walked closer.
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Where have you been?”
She looked toward the hotel's glass entrance.
The movement was quick.
Instinctive.
Fearful.
Jackson noticed.
“Emily?”
“Don't come any closer.”
“Why?”
“Because you shouldn't have seen me.”
His confusion deepened.
“I spent three years looking for you.”
Pain crossed her face.
“I know.”
That stopped him.
“You knew?”
The elevator chimed behind her.
Its doors opened.
Emily stepped backward into it.
Jackson moved forward.
“Then why did you disappear?”
She stared at him.
For one moment, the crowded hotel seemed to disappear around them.
“Because if you remember what happened that night…”
Her voice trembled.
“…they'll come after you too.”
Jackson's expression hardened.
“Who?”
Emily looked toward the entrance again.
“The people who tried to kill you.”
The elevator doors began closing.
Jackson lunged forward.
“Emily!”
Her eyes remained on his.
“I never stopped loving you.”
The doors shut.
Jackson stood motionless.
His heart hammered.
Loving him?
They had barely known each other before the accident.
Or at least that was what Jackson remembered.
His phone vibrated.
Unknown number.
One message.
IF YOU WANT HER ALIVE, FORGET YOU EVER SAW HER.
Jackson slowly lifted his eyes.
Above the elevator was a security camera.
Its tiny red light blinked.
Someone had been watching.
And suddenly Jackson understood something terrifying.
Emily had not disappeared because she wanted to leave him.
She had disappeared because someone had forced her to.
The elevator indicator showed the car climbing.
Then—
Nothing.
The number vanished.
Jackson turned to the hotel manager.
“Where did that elevator stop?”
The manager checked the panel.
His expression changed.
“It didn't.”
“What do you mean?”
“That elevator just lost power.”
Jackson stared at him.
May you like
Then came a scream from somewhere above.
And Jackson ran.
