The phone's click echoed like a gunshot and Victoria released the breath she did not know she was holding.

She watched George set the receiver down with the reverence of a man placing a crown on his head.

Her world tilted. The walls seemed to press closer, stealing the oxygen from her lungs. She watched George's triumphant smile spread like poison across his face, and something inside her chest cracked open,raw.

"Ten years." Her voice came out strangled, barely human. "Ten years ...