Chapter 1 - The Sentence He Shouldn't Have Known
By the time Sienna Mercer reached the dining room, her grandmother was already on the floor.
Evelyn had Noah locked against her chest with both arms, one hand spread over the back of his cream blanket as if she could shield every inch of him at once. Her floral blouse had twisted sideways. A fistful of silver curls hung loose near her cheek.
Trina stood over her holding the wide glass chili jar.
Noah's screams filled the room.
Sienna didn't understand what she was seeing until Trina lifted the jar again.
“Maybe the little brat will finally shut up in there.”
Something red flashed at the edge of Sienna's vision.
The fire extinguisher.
She tore it off the wall.
“Sienna—”
Evelyn barely got her name out.
Sienna swung.
The extinguisher caught Trina high across the shoulder and side of her head. Trina crashed against a dining chair before dropping hard beside the table. The jar bounced once on the rug and rolled beneath the buffet.
Sienna threw the extinguisher down and dropped beside Evelyn.
“Is he breathing?”
“He's crying. He's breathing. Call.”
Sienna already had her phone out.
She put 911 on speaker.
Then the back door opened.
Her father stepped inside.
Mark Mercer stopped with one hand still on the door.
He looked at Trina first.
Not the baby.
Trina was groaning beside the overturned chair, one palm pressed to her temple.
“What the hell did you do?” Mark snapped.
Sienna stared at him.
“What did I do?”
Evelyn's voice broke. “She put Noah in that jar.”
Mark's jaw tightened.
The dispatcher was asking whether the infant was conscious.
Sienna answered without taking her eyes off her father.
“Yes. He's crying.”
Mark stepped farther inside.
“Tell them it was an accident. He's fine.”
Evelyn looked up at him.
“What?”
Mark pointed toward Trina.
Then toward the baby his mother was still protecting with her entire body.
“She only had him in there for a second.”
Nobody moved.
Sienna heard the dispatcher asking another question, but the words seemed suddenly far away.
She looked at the open back door.
Then at Mark.
“You just came through that door.”
Mark's eyes flicked toward the patio.
Sienna stood.
“So how do you know that?”
For the first time since entering, Mark looked frightened.
Not surprised.
Frightened.
His mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
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And Sienna realized the most terrifying thing in the dining room might not be what Trina had done.
It might be what her father had already known.
