My mother poured boiling milk over my 8-month pregnant belly to steal my $200k diamond inheritance, right before my water broke on the kitchen floor.

Victor pressed the silent alarm under his counter.

"Give that back to me!" Vivian shrieked, dropping all pretense of elegance. She lunged across the glass counter, her manicured claws raking across the felt pad to grab the necklace.

Victor was faster. He swept the velvet box off the counter and dropped it into a secure, drop-down steel safe beneath his desk, which slammed shut with an ominous pneumatic hiss.

"You have thirty seconds to leave my premises before armed private security arrives," Victor said coldly, stepping back and folding his arms. "And I assure you, the Charleston police are already en route."

"You ruined everything!" Kelsey screamed at Vivian, grabbing her mother’s coat and dragging her toward the heavy glass doors. "Run, Mom! Run!"

They burst out of the shop and scrambled into the Mercedes just as the distant sirens began wailing through the downtown corridors. Kelsey slammed the pedal to the floor, tires smoking against the asphalt, leaving the pawnshop empty-handed and completely exposed.

Meanwhile, in the sterile quiet of the Burn ICU at St. Jude’s, I opened my eyes to the sound of an electronic monitor humming softly.

The pain was a dull, pulsing beast kept barely at bay by an intravenous drip of fentanyl. Every breath stretched the thick gauze bandages wrapped tightly around my left ribs and shoulder.

Ethan was sitting in the armchair beside my bed, his elbows on his knees, his face buried in his hands. He looked ten years older.

"Ethan..." my voice was barely a croak.

His head snapped up. In an instant, he was on his feet, gently cupping the right side of my face with his thumb.

"Maddie. Thank God. You're awake."

"Lily?" I whispered, my heart slamming against my ribs in terror. "Is she... did she..."

"She's stable," Ethan said, a watery smile breaking through his exhaustion. "She’s in the NICU. Her lungs are functioning well. She’s under the warmer, but Sarah said she’s going to be completely fine, Maddie. Our daughter is alive."

I let out a sob that felt like fire tearing through my chest, but the relief was so profound I didn't care about the pain.

"And my mother?" I asked, my voice hardening. "Did they catch them?"

A tall, broad-shouldered man in a charcoal suit stepped into the room from the doorway. He had a badge clipped to his belt and a grim, no-nonsense look in his steel-gray eyes.

"Mrs. Vance? I’m Detective Vance—no relation to your husband," the officer said gently, pulling out a small notebook. "I’m with the Charleston County Major Crimes Unit. Your mother, Vivian, walked into the North Precinct forty minutes ago with a criminal defense attorney."

My jaw dropped. "She went to the police?"

"She did," Detective Vance nodded grimly. "She claims she was visiting you for your baby shower, that you suffered a postpartum-induced psychiatric episode, that you attacked her sister with a chef's knife, and that during the struggle, you knocked a pot of boiling milk over yourself. She claims she fled the house because she was terrified for her life."

"That is a lie!" I gasped, trying to sit up, only for Ethan to gently push my shoulder back down. "She threw it! She looked me dead in the face and dumped it on my stomach because I caught them stealing my grandmother's diamonds!"

"We know she’s lying, Mrs. Vance," the detective said calmly. "Especially since Kelsey just tried to pawn the Eleanor Vaughn diamond necklace at Holloway Gems twenty minutes ago."

"Then arrest them!" I cried. "Why aren't they in handcuffs?!"

"Her attorney is claiming Kelsey took the jewelry to preserve estate assets from an unstable individual," the detective sighed, rubbing his temple. "Without physical witnesses inside the kitchen, it becomes a he-said-she-said regarding the exact moment the burn occurred. The DA needs undeniable proof of intent to file aggravated assault and attempted murder charges on an expectant mother."

Ethan looked at me, a dark, lethal smirk suddenly curving his lips.

"Proof?" Ethan whispered.

He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his iPhone.

"Ethan?" I asked, confused. "What is that?"

"The baby shower," Ethan said softly. "You wanted me to capture candid videos of the guests while you were opening gifts, remember? I set up the smart security camera on the kitchen island this morning. It’s disguised inside the digital recipe tablet stand."

My eyes widened.

Ethan unlocked his phone and tapped the screen, turning it toward Detective Vance.