Chapter 2
Drea stared at my open palm like I had pointed a gun at her.
“Mason,” she whispered. “I can explain.”
Calla clung to Elise so hard I thought she might never let go.
My guests stood frozen around the pool.
Nobody laughed now.
Nobody whispered.
Even the ice in the glasses seemed afraid to move.
I stepped closer to Drea.
“The key.”
Her mouth opened.
Closed.
Then she looked at Elise.
Hate flashed across her face before she buried it under tears.
“She came here tonight,” Drea said. “She broke in. I locked her inside because she was unstable.”
Elise lifted her head.
Her voice was rough.
“I’ve been in there since yesterday.”
Calla cried harder.
Yesterday.
My stomach turned.
I had slept inside the house.
I had made coffee.
I had welcomed guests.
And my daughter’s mother had been locked in a pool house less than a hundred feet away.
Drea shook her head.
“She’s lying. She always lies.”
I looked at Calla.
“How did you know?”
Calla wiped her face with her sleeve.
“I heard her last night.”
My chest tightened.
“What?”
“I heard knocking when I went to get my pool float. Drea said it was pipes.”
Drea snapped, “Because it was.”
Calla screamed, “No, it wasn’t!”
Elise held her daughter’s face.
“You were so brave.”
I could barely stand.
“Elise,” I said. “Why are you here?”
She looked at me with eyes full of pain.
“I came because Calla sent me a letter.”
Calla froze.
Drea went pale.
“What letter?” I asked.
Calla looked down.
“I mailed it from school.”
“To where?”
“To Mom’s old address. I wrote that I missed her and that Drea said Mom didn’t want me anymore.”
Elise swallowed.
“It was forwarded to me through a friend. I came straight here.”
Drea laughed, sharp and desperate.
“You see? She’s manipulating a child.”
Elise lifted her sleeve.
There were bruises around her wrist.
Fresh.
Finger-shaped.
My vision narrowed.
I turned to Drea.
“Who put those marks on her?”
She stepped back.
“You don’t understand what she was going to do.”
“What was she going to do?”
Drea’s face twisted.
“Take Calla from us.”
Us.
That one word said everything.
I had thought Drea loved my daughter.
I had thought she wanted to become part of our family.
But she had not wanted a family.
She wanted possession.
I pulled out my phone and called 911.
Drea’s expression changed completely.
“Mason, don’t.”
May you like
I looked at Elise, then at Calla.
“They are done being afraid of you.”
