## Chapter 3: The Sanctuary
Emily wrenched her arm away with a strength she didn’t know she possessed. The pen skittered across the floor. “Don’t touch me!” she screamed.
She didn’t wait for their reaction. Emily turned and bolted—as much as a heavily pregnant woman could bolt—toward the back of the house. She knew the layout better than they realized. While Beatrice spent her time in the formal parlors, Emily had spent her lonely months exploring every corner of the Sterling mansion.
She reached the heavy oak door of the library and slammed it shut, sliding the brass bolt just as Vanessa’s weight hit the other side.
“Open the door, Emily!” Vanessa yelled, her voice losing its melodic charm. “You’re making this so much worse!”
Emily leaned against the door, gasping for air. Her stomach tightened—a Braxton Hicks contraction, she hoped, and not the real thing. She needed a weapon. She needed a way out.
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She looked around the library. It was a fortress of books and shadows. In the corner sat David’s private desk. She ran to it, tearing open the drawers. Empty. No phone, no emergency radio. But then she saw it—the small, silver key David kept in a hidden compartment under the desk. It was the key to the nursery he had been building in secret, a room Beatrice wasn't allowed to enter.
There was a secondary service staircase behind the bookshelf in the nursery. If she could get there, she could get to the garage. But the library door was already beginning to groan under the pressure of someone kicking it from the outside.
