Chapter 1 - The Look That Broke Her Mother
Frank Walsh already had Erin pinned against the SUV when the garage door rattled in its tracks.
Her shoulder struck the rear passenger window. Before she could pull away, he twisted her arm behind her back until pain shot through her ribs.
“Lie again and I’ll put you back in a coma.”
Erin’s knees buckled. She caught herself against the cold metal with her free hand, fighting the dizziness that still came without warning.
Four weeks earlier, she had awakened at OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital after fourteen days unconscious. The neurologist had warned her that headaches, missing memories, and sudden weakness might continue for months.
Frank had apparently heard only the part about missing memories.
Linda stood beside the workbench in a blue blouse, watching her husband bend their daughter’s arm.
She made no move toward them.
“I remember the motel,” Erin gasped.
Frank jerked her upright.
“You remember whatever that damaged brain tells you.”
“I remember Rebecca.”
Linda’s expression remained cold.
“I’d bury you before I believed a liar like you.”
The words struck harder than Frank’s grip.
Erin had spent her first week awake asking for her phone. Frank said it had shattered when she fell from the storage loft. Linda said Erin had imagined the motel because of medication.
There had been no storage loft in the part of the garage where Erin was found.
There had been no ladder nearby.
Frank raised his hand.
“Then choose which one of us you fear.”
Erin stopped struggling.
She did not look at him.
She looked only at Linda.
The certainty drained from her mother’s face so quickly that Frank’s raised hand froze.
Erin spoke quietly.
“You both knew the truth.”
Linda’s fingers closed around the edge of the workbench.
For one second, mother and daughter stared at each other across the garage.
Then Linda whispered, “Frank, stop.”
May you like
Not because he was hurting Erin.
Because Erin remembered.
