While I lay bedridden and grateful, they had intended to take the entirety of my life’s work, and my grandmother’s, and make it theirs.

Chapter 10 — I Called My Attorney

I powered on the backup phone and opened the app for the hidden camera, and there on the small screen was the proof: the live feed of me dragging myself across my own garage floor, and, saved in its memory, the crisp audio of Beatrice explaining that my pain pills would be released only when I signed.

I uploaded a second copy of the clip to a private server.

And then I called Jacqueline Vance.

She answered on the second ring, and the instant she heard my breathing, her whole voice changed.