Chapter 2 - WHAT TESSA KNEW
I couldn’t feel my hands.
“What do you mean?”
Tessa looked at Evan.
He immediately shook his head.
“Don’t.”
That one word told me more than any explanation could have.
I turned to my husband.
“You knew?”
“No.”
“Tessa.”
She wiped tears from her face.
“Three months ago, Mom watched Maisie while you were at that dental appointment.”
I remembered.
Margaret had volunteered.
She had practically insisted.
I had been gone ninety minutes.
“What happened?”
Tessa’s voice broke.
“I came by to drop off some paperwork.”
Margaret shouted from across the room.
“Enough!”
Tessa ignored her.
“I heard Maisie crying upstairs.”
My stomach tightened.
“When I got to the nursery, Mom was holding her by one arm.”
I looked at Margaret.
She folded her arms.
“She was having a tantrum.”
“She was twenty-one months old!” Tessa snapped.
“I told Mom to stop.”
“And?”
Tessa lowered her eyes.
“She did.”
That answer wasn’t enough.
“What else?”
Tessa hesitated.
My heart began pounding harder.
“What else, Tessa?”
“She told me you were unstable.”
I laughed once.
Not because anything was funny.
Because it was exactly the kind of thing Margaret would say.
“She said if I told you, you’d overreact and destroy the family.”
Margaret pointed toward me.
“Look at her! I was right.”
I stepped toward her.
Evan blocked me.
“Claire.”
“Get away from me.”
“Just listen—”
“To what?”
My voice rose.
“To you explain why everyone knew my daughter was being hurt except me?”
“I didn’t know.”
Tessa looked at him.
That look stopped him.
“Tessa?” I said.
She closed her eyes.
“Evan knew Maisie was scared of Mom.”
He snapped, “That is not the same thing!”
“You told me Claire was too protective.”
My chest tightened.
“You talked about this?”
Evan rubbed both hands over his face.
“Maisie cried when Mom babysat. Kids cry.”
“She started hiding behind furniture when Margaret came over!”
“I thought she’d grow out of it!”
I stared at the man I had married.
“You thought our daughter would grow out of being afraid?”
Nobody answered.
Then Margaret walked toward Tessa.
“Give me your phone.”
“No.”
“Tessa.”
“No.”
Margaret grabbed for it.
Tessa jerked backward.
The phone slipped from her hand.
It struck the floor.
The livestream was still open.
A voice came from the speaker.
A man’s voice.
“Claire?”
I stopped.
I knew that voice.
I hadn’t heard it in almost four years.
Margaret went completely white.
The man spoke again.
“Claire, if you can hear me, take Maisie and leave that house.”
My throat closed.
“Dad?”
Margaret lunged for the phone.
Tessa grabbed it first.
May you like
Then my father said something that made even Evan stop moving.
“Do not let Margaret know where you’re going.”
