Inside an archived folder was an email titled Ashley’s Fellowship Application.

The attachment was mine. It had been submitted three days after I’d decided to give up on it, and the confirmation had been routed to my own inbox, so it looked as though I’d sent it myself. Matthew had done it.

I kept digging. Graduate school. A leadership seminar. A writing conference. The manuscript submission that eventually became my first published novel.

The work had always been mine — but every single time fear stopped me at the finish line, Matthew had reached past me and pushed the final button.

Chapter 5 — The Cedar Chest

That night, I confronted him. “What trap were you talking about?”
He didn’t deny the call.

Instead he led me into the garage and opened an old cedar chest hidden behind the holiday decorations.