Chapter 27- SOMEONE HAD PLANNED FOR THE DARKMy daughter, Emma, screamed from the hallway.
I dropped the phone into my dress pocket and ran toward her voice, knocking my shoulder against the wall. Behind me, chairs scraped across the hardwood floor.
Grant shouted my name.
His mother, Vivian, shouted something else.
“Get her phone!”
That was when I understood the darkness was not an accident.
I found Emma crouched beside the staircase. She was ten years old, barefoot, and shaking so hard she could barely speak.
“Mom, Uncle Peter closed the door.”
Grant’s younger brother stood near the foyer, outlined by the emergency lights from the security panel. His hand was still on the deadbolt.
“Move,” I told him.
Peter glanced toward the dining room.
“I can’t.”
“You can, or I’ll make you.”
He gave a humorless laugh.
Then Emma lifted her tablet.
“I recorded Grandma telling him to lock us in.”
May you like
Peter’s expression changed.
For the first time that night, someone in Grant’s family looked afraid of my daughter.
