Chapter 1 - The Second Tooth
Lily Bennett was three years old when she learned that adults could look frightened for reasons children did not understand.
That afternoon, she had been sitting on the pale wooden floor beneath the enormous American flag in the Bennett hallway, arranging wooden animals into a crooked line.
Then she saw something white beneath the console table.
At first Lily thought it was one of her toy rabbit’s missing ears.
She crawled closer.
Picked it up.
And stared.
It looked like a tooth.
Too large to be hers.
Smooth.
Perfectly white.
Beside it lay a tiny red plastic object no bigger than her fingertip.
Lily picked that up too.
“Claire?”
Claire Morgan stepped from kitchen.
She wasn't Lily’s mother.
She was Ethan Bennett’s longtime family friend and temporary household manager while Ethan dealt with months of business problems following his divorce from Lily’s mother, Emma.
Claire had been around so often that Lily had stopped questioning why she possessed keys.
But the moment Claire saw what Lily held, her face changed.
“Give me that.”
Lily pulled her hand against chest.
“I found it.”
Claire crossed hallway quickly.
“Lily.”
The little girl recognized that voice.
Not loud.
Worse.
The voice adults used before pretending nothing had happened.
Claire reached.
Lily backed away.
Then ran.
She made it only several feet.
Claire grabbed a fistful of her blonde hair.
Lily screamed.
Claire pulled.
Lily fell flat onto stomach.
Her palms slapped floor.
Then Claire dragged her backward.
“Daddy! Help me!”
The scream traveled through house.
Ethan heard it from study.
He sprinted into hallway.
The sight stopped every rational thought.
Claire had his daughter by hair.
Lily was sobbing, kicking, trying crawl away.
“LET HER GO!”
Ethan tore Lily free and lifted her against chest.
She locked both arms around his neck.
Claire lunged again.
Not toward Ethan.
Toward Lily’s clenched hand.
Ethan turned daughter safely behind shoulder.
“Stay away from her.”
Claire reached again.
Ethan struck her once.
Claire spun sideways and fell.
Something white flew from her mouth.
It hit floor.
Click.
Rolled.
Stopped beside the object Lily had dropped.
Claire touched mouth.
“You broke my tooth!”
Ethan stared down.
Then Lily stopped crying.
Her eyes fixed on floor.
Two white teeth.
Almost identical.
“That’s not her tooth.”
Ethan looked at daughter.
“What?”
Claire’s expression changed instantly.
“Ethan, don’t touch it.”
That was wrong answer.
Ethan crouched.
Claire tried to rise.
“Ethan!”
He ignored her.
One white object had apparently just come from Claire’s mouth.
The other had already been on hallway floor.
Yet under chandelier light, Ethan noticed something strange.
They weren't merely similar.
Their shape, shade, and tiny groove along side appeared almost exactly the same.
Manufactured sameness.
Lily buried face against his shoulder.
“She put the other one in her mouth too.”
Ethan slowly looked at Claire.
Claire went completely still.
“When?”
Lily whispered:
“Yesterday.”
Claire closed eyes.
May you like
And Ethan understood that whatever had happened in hallway had not started when Claire grabbed Lily.
It had started with the first tooth.
