Chapter 1 - The Second Penelope Wasn’t Supposed to See
Penelope Carter knew something was wrong before she had fully stepped through the front door.
The basket of groceries was overturned beside the sofa.
Apples rolled beneath the coffee table. A loaf of bread had been crushed beneath someone’s shoe.
And six-year-old Lily was kneeling in the middle of it.
A metal dog leash circled her neck.
At the other end stood Hattie Carter.
“Learn to obey.”
Hattie gave the leash a sharp pull.
Lily coughed and burst into tears.
Penelope’s suitcase hit the floor.
“HATTIE!”
She crossed the living room before Hattie could react, knocked her away from Lily, and immediately wrapped both arms around her daughter.
Lily was trembling.
“I’ve got you.”
Footsteps thundered from the hallway.
Michael appeared.
For one hopeful second Penelope expected husband to look at Lily.
Instead Hattie pointed at Penelope.
“She attacked me!”
Michael’s expression hardened.
He strode toward his wife.
The confrontation happened so quickly Penelope barely registered his raised hand before the blow sent her stumbling against a chair.
“GET ON YOUR KNEES AND APOLOGIZE.”
Then something happened that frightened Penelope more than Michael’s anger.
Lily started kneeling.
Automatically.
As though she had practiced.
Penelope grabbed her daughter beneath arms and pulled her upright.
“Never kneel before them.”
Lily stared at Michael.
Not Hattie.
Michael.
Penelope suddenly remembered why she had rushed home early.
Twenty minutes earlier, while waiting at airport, she had opened the living-room security app.
She had seen Hattie dragging Lily toward the old dog kennel stored near hallway.
Penelope pulled out her phone.
“I saw what she did.”
She played recording.
Hattie dragging Lily.
The kennel.
Michael’s anger changed.
Not disbelief.
Fear.
Lily clutched Penelope’s burgundy blazer.
“Mommy…”
Penelope looked down.
“Don’t let Daddy see the rest.”
Michael stepped toward phone.
Penelope immediately shielded Lily.
Then afternoon light struck Michael’s wrist.
His silver watch flashed.
Lily screamed.
Penelope froze.
Her thumb brushed screen.
The recording advanced one second beyond section she had watched at airport.
Hattie stood beside kennel.
Another person was almost entirely outside camera frame.
Only hand.
Only wrist.
That hand unlocked kennel.
And around wrist was the same distinctive silver watch Michael was wearing now.
Penelope slowly lifted her eyes from phone to husband.
Michael instinctively covered his watch.
Then realized what he had done.
Hattie whispered:
“Michael…”
Penelope stared at them both.
“What is on the rest of that recording?”
Neither answered.
May you like
Then Michael said something far worse.
“Delete it before Lily remembers why we put her there.”
