Cole tapped the bottom of the document.

“Sign there, Rachel.”

I stared at the page.

“You locked me in my own kitchen to ask for a signature?”

“You’re upset.

I didn’t want you running outside and making a scene.”

“You were kissing my mother.”

Darla gripped the back of a chair.

“Please lower your voice.”

“My friends were eating cake ten feet away while you betrayed me.

You don’t get to ask me to be quiet.”

Cole pushed a pen toward me.

“It’s temporary financial authority,” he said.

“The business needs a short-term loan.

We’ll repay it before you notice anything.”

“Before I notice?”

“That came out wrong.”

“No, it came out honest.”

Someone knocked on the front door.

Cole’s eyes moved toward the hallway, but he didn’t unlock the kitchen.

My phone vibrated in my pocket.

Tessa: I left my purse.

Why is the front door locked?

I slid one hand beneath the table and pressed the call button.

Cole turned another page.

“The house is worth more than enough.

Your father left it to you, but we’re married.

This affects both of us.”

“My father left it to me because it had belonged to his parents.”

“And I’ve paid bills here.”

“You paid the internet bill twice.”

Darla moved beside him.

“Rachel, Cole owes people money.”

Cole’s head snapped toward her.

“That is not your story to tell.”

“It became my story when you asked me to help.”

I kept my phone hidden against my dress.

“How much?”

Cole folded his arms.

“Enough that this family could lose everything.”

“This family?”

“You, me, and the baby.”

“Don’t use my daughter to frighten me.”

“She’s my daughter too.”

“Then why were you planning to take her home?”

Darla’s face lost its color.

I looked from her to the document.

“What else is in those papers?”

“Nothing you need to worry about,” Cole said.

I pulled the stack toward me.

Cole caught my wrist, but I tore the pages free with my other hand.

“Let go.”

“Stop behaving like this.”

“Let go of me, Cole.”

Tessa’s voice came through my phone.

“Rachel?

Are you there?”

Cole released me and grabbed for the phone.

I backed into the counter.

“Tessa, call someone.

Cole locked the door.”

Darla rushed forward.

“No!

Don’t make this worse.”

I opened the document to the final section.

The first pages concerned the house, but the last page carried a different heading.

Temporary guardianship in the event of medical incapacity.

Darla’s name had already been typed into the blank marked proposed guardian.

My mouth went dry.

“Why are you listed here?”

“It was only a precaution,” she said.

“For what?”

Cole stepped between us.

“Childbirth can be unpredictable.”

“You planned this before the baby shower.”

“We planned to protect her.”

“From whom?”

Neither of them answered.

The front door opened, followed by Tessa’s footsteps in the hallway.

She still had the spare key I’d given her years earlier.

Cole seized the papers.

“Tell her to leave.”

Tessa struck the kitchen door with her palm.

“Rachel, open this door.”

I reached for the lock, but Cole blocked me.

Darla began to cry again.

“If you walk out now, everything will collapse.”

“Everything already has.”

Cole leaned close enough for me to smell coffee on his breath.

“If you refuse to sign,” he said, “your mother and I will tell everyone exactly why you shouldn’t be trusted alone with that baby.”