Chapter 1 - THE CAKE WASN’T IT
Emma had both hands buried in Noah’s birthday cake when Rachel came around the patio table.
The nine-year-old ripped the plastic superhero figure from the top tier, taking a fist-sized piece of blue frosting with it. Then she dragged her other hand through the middle layer and laughed as half the cake collapsed.
Noah made a sound Rachel had never heard from him before.
Not anger.
Something smaller.
“Oh, stop,” Ashley said. “It’s just cake. Noah needs to learn everything isn’t about him.”
It was his seventh birthday.
The cake had cost Rachel eighty dollars, but that was not why she moved.
She pulled Noah behind her.
“What is wrong with you?”
Ashley stepped between her and Emma.
“Don’t you dare scream at my daughter.”
“She destroyed his birthday cake in front of him.”
“She made a joke.”
Noah was crying into Rachel’s back.
Emma licked frosting from her thumb.
Ashley grabbed Rachel’s forearm when Rachel stepped around her.
“You’re not making my daughter the villain because your kid can’t take a joke.”
Rachel twisted free.
Two relatives stood near the grill pretending not to know where to look.
That was familiar.
Ashley had always depended on other people’s discomfort lasting longer than hers.
Rachel looked at Emma’s blue hands.
Then at Ashley.
“Fine.”
Ashley gave her a satisfied look.
Rachel continued.
“I’m done paying for Emma’s ski trip.”
The smile disappeared.
“And dance camp.”
“What?”
“And the costume fees next month.”
Ashley grabbed Rachel again, this time with both hands.
“You’re punishing a child over cake?”
“No.”
Rachel pulled Noah tighter against her.
“I’m stopping the part where you treat my son like garbage and still send me the bill for your daughter.”
Emma wiped frosting down the front of her gray T-shirt.
Then she looked at Noah.
Her voice carried the careless cruelty of a child repeating something she did not understand.
“Mom said Noah already got enough after that bike crash.”
Rachel stopped moving.
Ashley’s face lost all color.
“Emma.”
“What?”
“I said stop.”
Rachel looked from her niece to her sister.
“What does his accident have to do with anything?”
Ashley seized her wrist.
“Nothing.”
“Ashley.”
“Drop it.”
Emma’s smirk faded.
Rachel had seen that exact panic on Ashley’s face once before.
Five months earlier.
May you like
In the emergency room.
The night Noah’s bicycle had been found twisted beside the curb while nobody could explain exactly how he ended up underneath it.
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