The Fall from the Fifteenth Floor

One week before our wedding, my phone rang with a call from an unknown number.

Julian had been kidnapped. The kidnapper gave me an ultimatum: wire three million dollars in twenty-four hours, or Julian would be dead.

I hadn't worked in a year. I was completely broke.

Panicked and shaking, I dialed my sister, Natalie.

She let out a scoffing laugh through the speaker.

"Avery, you really have some nerve! Asking for three million just like that?"

"I don't have that kind of money. Deal with it yourself."

Before I could beg again, she hung up on me.