Chapter 2 - RACHEL WAS ONLY SUPPOSED TO DO THE MAKEUP
Maya locked herself and Emma inside the downstairs guest room.
She did not interrogate her daughter.
She wanted to.
Every part of her wanted answers immediately.
But Emma was four.
Terrified children could be influenced by adults without anyone intending to do it.
Maya called her older sister, Lauren.
“Come here.”
Lauren heard something in her voice and asked no questions.
“I’m leaving now.”
Then Maya called Emma’s pediatrician’s after-hours number.
She explained only what she had physically witnessed.
Fake injury makeup.
Coached statements.
No actual injury.
The pediatrician advised Maya to keep Emma safe, avoid repeated questioning, preserve whatever she had seen, and arrange an evaluation the following morning.
Maya photographed Emma’s arm once.
Then washed the remaining pigment away.
Emma watched the purple swirl disappear into the sink.
“Mommy?”
“Yeah, baby?”
“Are you mad at me?”
Maya’s throat tightened.
“No.”
“I said it wrong.”
“What did you say wrong?”
Emma immediately looked frightened.
Maya stopped.
“No more questions.”
She lifted her daughter onto the bed.
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Upstairs, voices rose.
Nathan and Rachel.
Then Rachel appeared outside the locked guest-room door.
“Maya?”
Nathan shouted from the hallway:
“Don’t talk to her.”
Rachel ignored him.
“I’m leaving.”
Maya opened the door only after Lauren arrived.
Lauren positioned herself between Nathan and Emma.
Rachel stood near the foyer holding her coat.
Her cheek was still red from Maya’s slap.
Maya looked at her.
“I shouldn’t have hit you.”
Rachel blinked.
It was not the response she expected.
Maya continued.
“But you were painting a fake injury on my child.”
Rachel looked down.
“I know.”
“Why?”
Rachel swallowed.
“Nathan hired me.”
“For what?”
“I do theatrical makeup. Commercials. Local theater. Haunted attractions in October.”
“You thought making a four-year-old look abused was a commercial?”
“No.”
Rachel’s voice cracked.
“He told me you were hurting her.”
Maya stared.
“He said you were having episodes.”
“What episodes?”
Rachel looked at Nathan.
He stood rigidly near the stairs.
“Maya has a medical condition.”
Maya’s chest tightened.
Rachel continued.
“He told me sometimes you do things at night and don’t remember.”
Lauren looked sharply at Maya.
Maya’s face had gone pale.
For five months, Nathan had been telling her exactly that.
Objects moved.
A shattered drinking glass she did not remember dropping.
A kitchen drawer left open.
Once, Nathan claimed she had screamed at him at two in the morning.
Maya remembered none of it.
She had begun wondering whether stress, sleep deprivation, or her nighttime medication was affecting her memory.
Rachel said:
“Nathan told me there had already been bruises before.”
“There haven’t.”
“He said they faded before anyone could document them.”
Maya stared at Nathan.
Rachel wiped her eyes.
“He said if you saw one clearly, you might finally accept that you needed treatment.”
Lauren whispered:
“Oh my God.”
Maya looked back at Rachel.
“And Emma?”
Rachel’s shame became visible.
“He said she needed to tell you what happened.”
“So you knew he was coaching her.”
“Yes.”
“Why would you agree to that?”
Rachel looked sick.
“Because he told me she was scared of protecting you.”
Maya had to look away.
Rachel continued quickly.
“I thought it was wrong. I knew it was wrong. But I thought…”
“What?”
“That we were forcing you to face something real.”
Nathan finally spoke.
“She’s twisting this.”
Rachel turned on him.
“You told me Maya would be asleep.”
Maya looked at Nathan.
Rachel continued.
“You said by morning she wouldn’t know we’d done the makeup.”
Nathan’s face changed.
Maya caught it.
“What were you planning to do to me tonight?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why wouldn’t I remember?”
Nathan walked toward her.
Lauren stepped forward.
“Stay where you are.”
Nathan stopped.
Maya looked at the man she had slept beside for six years.
He looked familiar.
That was almost worse.
May you like
Because suddenly every moment Maya believed she had forgotten something carried a new question.
Maybe she had never forgotten it at all.
