Chapter 1 - The Pointing Hands
Grace caught the wheelchair before Margaret reached the bottom of the staircase.
The impact drove Grace onto one knee.
Margaret trembled violently, fingers locked around both armrests.
Then the front door opened.
Daniel stepped inside.
Vanessa saw him.
Her face changed instantly.
“SHE TRIED TO KILL YOUR MOTHER!”
Daniel did not ask.
He saw Margaret shaking.
He saw Grace beside the wheelchair.
And rage did the rest.
He charged.
One hard kick knocked Grace away.
“GET OUT! YOU’RE DONE HERE!”
Grace pushed herself upright.
“DANIEL, SHE PUSHED HER—I SAVED HER!”
Daniel slapped her.
“DON’T LIE TO ME!”
Grace froze.
Tears filled her eyes.
Behind Daniel, Vanessa said nothing.
She only watched.
Grace turned toward the door.
Then Lisa ran from the dark hallway.
The seven-year-old grabbed Grace’s uniform.
Daniel stopped.
Lisa could not speak.
She never had.
But she did not need words.
She pointed at Vanessa.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Then she turned toward the staircase and threw both hands forward in a violent imitation of someone shoving a wheelchair.
Daniel went still.
Vanessa’s face lost its color.
Lisa pulled Daniel’s sleeve and pointed again.
Vanessa.
Stairs.
Wheelchair.
Vanessa.
Then Daniel slowly looked toward his mother.
Margaret was mute too.
A stroke three years earlier had taken speech and much of her mobility.
Her hand trembled as she lifted it.
And pointed directly at Vanessa.
Silence swallowed the foyer.
Daniel’s face changed.
He looked at Grace.
Then his mother.
Then Lisa.
Finally Vanessa.
“What are they saying?”
Vanessa stepped backward.
“They’re confused.”
Lisa shook her head so hard her ponytail snapped across her shoulder.
She pointed at Vanessa again.
Margaret did too.
Daniel whispered:
“Both of them?”
Vanessa’s eyes filled immediately.
“Daniel, you know how scared your mother gets. Lisa copies what she sees.”
Grace stared at her.
“She saw you.”
Vanessa snapped:
“She saw YOU holding the chair!”
Daniel looked toward staircase.
One question finally broke through his anger.
“If Grace pushed her from the top…”
He turned toward Grace.
“…how did she get downstairs fast enough to catch her?”
Vanessa stopped breathing.
Grace said quietly:
“She didn’t think you’d ask that.”
Then Lisa ran toward the hallway.
She returned carrying something in both hands.
A small white communication tablet belonging to Margaret.
Its screen was cracked.
Daniel took it.
One message had been typed before the device was damaged.
Only four letters remained visible:
VANE—
Vanessa stared at it.
May you like
Daniel slowly lifted his eyes.
“What happened to the rest?”
