Chapter 2
I looked at Detective Collins.
Her eyes sharpened.
She held one finger to her lips.
I kept my voice steady.
“What second injector?”
Michael paused.
Not long.
But long enough.
“The backup one,” he said. “You always carry two, right?”
Lily’s fingers tightened around mine.
I looked at her small hand.
Then at the oxygen tube beneath her nose.
“Yes,” I said. “I carry two.”
“So where is it?”
The question came too fast.
Too hungry.
“Why does that matter?”
Michael gave a nervous laugh.
“Because if they can’t find it, Evelyn will say you forgot both. You need to think ahead.”
Detective Collins wrote something on her notepad.
Keep him talking.
I swallowed the rage in my throat.
“Where are you?”
“At the house.”
My house.
The house Anna and I bought.
The house where Lily’s height marks were still penciled on the pantry door.
The house where my brother had slept rent-free for two years while I thanked him for helping me survive grief.
“What are you doing there?” I asked.
“Waiting for updates.”
“In my office?”
Another pause.
“No.”
Liar.
I pictured the locked drawer in my desk.
The spare medical file.
The copy of Anna’s trust.
The small safe Michael swore he never touched.
“Lily almost died,” I said.
“I know. It’s awful.”
His voice had no weight.
No panic.
No love.
Just calculation wrapped in concern.
“Did Evelyn call you?” I asked.
“No. Why would she?”
Detective Collins circled something on the paper.
Ask about trust.
I breathed slowly.
“Because the detective found a petition in her briefcase.”
Michael went silent.
Too silent.
“What petition?”
“The one with your signature.”
I heard movement on his end.
A drawer.
Paper sliding.
Then his voice changed.
“Daniel, listen. You’re emotional right now.”
There it was.
The same word Evelyn used.
The word they had chosen to build my cage.
“My daughter is in a hospital bed,” I said. “Emotional seems fair.”
“You need help. We all see it.”
“We?”
He caught himself.
“I mean the family.”
“Anna’s family?”
“Everyone who loves Lily.”
Lily whispered, “Uncle Michael?”
I covered the phone for one second.
“Stay quiet, sweetheart.”
Michael heard her anyway.
“Is Lily awake?”
Detective Collins nodded for me to answer.
“Yes.”
“Don’t let people ask her questions,” he said quickly. “She’s confused. Kids say things when they’re scared.”
I stared at the ceiling.
My own brother.
My own blood.
“What did you do, Michael?”
He exhaled sharply.
“I tried to save the family from you.”
Lily’s eyes filled.
Detective Collins reached for the phone.
I shook my head.
Not yet.
“By helping Evelyn poison my daughter?”
His voice snapped.
“Nobody poisoned her. It was a controlled exposure.”
The room went dead.
Even the machines seemed louder.
Detective Collins’s face hardened.
“A what?” I asked.
Michael realized too late.
“Daniel—”
“A controlled exposure?”
“She was never supposed to stop breathing.”
Lily began to cry.
I closed my eyes.
The old Daniel would have screamed.
The father in that room went cold.
“Where is the second injector, Michael?”
May you like
He whispered, “You don’t understand what Anna did.”
Then the line went dead.
