“I kept it as insurance, just in case this day ever came.”

“Where is it now?” I asked.

“It is safe,” Ruth said.

“But Vance is tearing the desk apart.”

“He is getting desperate, Daniel.”

Suddenly, a loud crash of breaking glass echoed through the phone line.

I heard a heavy wooden door slam open on her end.

A man’s angry voice barked in the background.

“Ruth!” the voice shouted.

The line went completely dead.

The silence that followed was absolute.

I stared at the black screen of my phone.

“Daniel?” Claire asked from the hospital bed.

Her voice was weak, but her eyes were sharp with panic.

She had pushed herself up against the pillows.

The paper gown she wore rustled with her movement.

“The line went dead,” I said.

My hand was gripping the phone so tightly my knuckles were white.

“I heard a crash, and then nothing.”

Claire reached out, her pale fingers trembling as she touched my sleeve.

“Ruth is in danger,” she said.

“And my boys,” I said, the realization hitting me like a physical blow.