Chapter 1 - THE WALKER IN THE HALLWAY
Brooke folded Rachel’s walker while Rachel was still holding it.
The hinges snapped inward.
Rachel’s recovering knee buckled.
She caught herself against the marble wall outside her condo before her full weight hit the floor.
“You’re dead weight now,” Brooke said.
Then she kicked the folded walker toward the elevator.
Rachel stared at her younger sister.
Six days earlier, a surgeon at Northwestern Medicine had reconstructed the damaged ligaments in Rachel’s right knee after a fall on black ice outside her Chicago office.
Her discharge instructions said no unsupported walking.
Brooke knew that.
She had driven Rachel home from surgery.
Their mother, Elaine, appeared in the doorway with Rachel’s navy suitcase.
Instead of helping her daughter stand, she rolled the suitcase into the hallway.
“Mom?”
Elaine avoided her eyes.
“Brooke’s handling the condo from now on.”
Brooke extended her hand.
“Key.”
Rachel thought the pain medication had distorted what she heard.
“What?”
“Your condo key.”
Rachel tightened her fingers around the ring.
“No.”
Brooke stepped closer.
“You don’t get a vote anymore.”
She grabbed for Rachel’s hand.
Rachel jerked backward.
Something slid from beneath Brooke’s camel coat.
A deep-burgundy leather folder struck the stone floor.
It opened slightly.
Rachel saw a brass key taped inside.
Her brass key.
Not the one in her hand.
Another one.
Beside it was the corner of a sealed document bearing a raised Illinois notary stamp.
Brooke lunged.
Rachel planted her good foot on the folder.
“Why do you have another key?”
Elaine stopped breathing normally.
Brooke’s face changed.
Not anger.
Fear.
Rachel slowly bent and pulled the document halfway free.
Brooke grabbed their mother’s wrist.
“Don’t let her open that.”
Rachel broke the seal.
The first line contained her full legal name.
May you like
The second contained the address of the condo beneath her feet.
And at the bottom of the visible page was a signature that looked almost exactly like hers.
