Chapter 2
I moved Louisa inside.
Warm room.
Blanket.
Socks.
Hot milk.
No questions until she stopped shaking.
Lydia hated that.
“She needs to explain herself.”
I looked at my mother-in-law.
“She’s three.”
“And?”
That word.
No concern.
No shame.
Just inconvenience.
Heather stood near the fireplace rubbing her ribs.
“You’re encouraging her.”
“For being framed?”
“For crying.”
Louisa pressed closer to me.
Heather noticed.
“See? She knows exactly how to make Mommy rescue her.”
I looked at my daughter.
One side of her hair was crudely shaved.
The other remained uneven.
“Who tied you outside?”
Louisa whispered:
“Grandma.”
Lydia sighed.
“Loosely.”
“Barefoot.”
“She kicked off her slippers.”
Louisa immediately shook her head.
“No.”
Lydia’s face hardened.
“Don’t lie.”
My daughter flinched.
I turned to the camera footage.
The recording began fifteen minutes before I entered the garden.
Heather placed the bracelet.
Then walked away.
Lydia brought Louisa outside moments later.
“Where’s my bracelet?”
“I don’t know.”
“Wrong.”
Heather opened Louisa’s bag.
Pretended surprise.
“There it is.”
Louisa started crying.
“I didn’t.”
Lydia crouched.
“Then perhaps the snow will improve your memory.”
I stopped the footage.
Walter scoffed from the sofa.
“Nobody hurt her.”
I looked at him.
“You held her in snow.”
“She survived.”
Heather laughed.
“She always survives her little tragedies.”
I resumed.
After Louisa was restrained, Lydia asked something that had nothing to do with jewelry.
“What did you hear in Adam’s study?”
My body went still.
Louisa cried harder.
“Nothing.”
Heather grabbed her hair.
“Children who lie lose privileges.”
Lydia smiled.
“Or hair.”
I stopped the video.
Adam.
My husband.
Dead eighteen months.
His study had been locked since the funeral.
I looked at Louisa.
“What did you hear?”
Lydia spoke first.
“Nothing.”
I turned.
“I asked my daughter.”
Louisa looked at me.
Then whispered:
“Grandma said Daddy wasn’t supposed to die.”
Nobody in the room moved.
Heather closed her eyes.
May you like
Walter whispered something under his breath.
And Lydia finally stopped pretending the bracelet mattered.
