Chapter 1 - The Man Behind the Glass
“Monster.”
The single word barely escaped Hunter Cole’s cracked lips.
But it silenced everyone inside the ICU.
The six-year-old lay beneath a thin white blanket, his face bruised, an oxygen tube resting beneath his nose. Machines flashed and beeped behind him as his chest rose in shallow, painful movements.
His mother, Abigail, stood beside the bed with both hands covering her mouth.
She had spent the last twelve hours begging him to wake up.
Now his trembling finger was pointing toward the two women standing across the room.
His grandmother, Diane.
And his aunt, Rachel.
Diane’s face went white.
Rachel took a step backward.
Abigail dropped beside the bed and gripped the rail.
“Baby, who hurt you?”
Hunter struggled for air.
His finger slowly lowered.
Then it moved past Diane and Rachel.
Toward the glass ICU doors.
“Not them…” he whispered. “The man.”
Detective Richards turned immediately.
Outside the room, nurses moved through the bright hallway.
Among them stood a man in a dark jacket.
He had been watching through the glass.
The moment he realized Hunter was pointing at him, he turned away and began walking quickly toward the emergency stairwell.
Detective Richards grabbed his radio.
“Lock every exit.”
A security alarm sounded.
The man broke into a run.
An officer lifted a body camera, capturing his face before he disappeared around the corner.
Abigail looked at the small screen.
Her breath stopped.
She knew the narrow eyes.
She knew the scar beside his jaw.
And she knew he was legally forbidden from coming within five hundred feet of Hunter.
“I know him,” Abigail said.
The man outside the ICU was Mason Cole—Hunter’s father.
The same man Abigail’s family had sworn they had not seen in three years.
Hunter weakly squeezed his mother’s hand.
And as security officers raced toward the stairwell, Abigail realized something even worse.
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Mason could not have reached Hunter without help from someone she trusted.
👉 To understand why Mason was inside that hospital, Abigail would have to uncover what happened during the twelve days her family kept her son hidden from her.
