Chapter 2
The operator answered while Nora backed toward the hallway.
“911, what is your emergency?”
I kept Lily tight against my chest.
“My wife may have tried to poison me. There is a chemical reaction on my dining room floor. My daughter witnessed it.”
Nora laughed, but her hands were trembling.
“This is insane.”
The operator asked for my address.
I gave it.
Nora stepped another foot back.
“Nora,” I said. “Stop.”
She looked at me with eyes I barely recognized.
“You never listened to me.”
“What?”
“You listened to Claire even after she died. Her photos. Her scarves. Her little rules for Lily. Her name in every room.”
I stared at her.
“My dead wife bothered you that much?”
“She wasn’t gone,” Nora said. “Not to you.”
Lily buried her face in my shoulder.
Marta stood beside the serving cart, crying silently.
The operator told me officers were on the way.
I ended the call only when she instructed me to stay away from the spill and keep everyone inside.
Nora saw my hand lower.
Then she ran.
I shouted, “Marta, take Lily!”
Lily screamed and clung to my neck.
“No! Daddy, don’t go!”
I could not leave Nora loose in the house.
Not with my daughter inside.
I carried Lily with me as I followed Nora into the hall.
She rushed toward the back staircase, but our security system chimed.
The front gate camera lit up on the wall panel.
Two patrol cars had turned into the drive.
Nora stopped.
She looked trapped.
Then she smiled.
The smile scared me more than the poison.
She lifted both hands to her face and began sobbing.
“Daniel, please don’t hurt me again.”
I froze.
Again?
Lily lifted her head.
“You’re lying.”
Nora dropped to the floor just as the front door opened.
Two officers entered.
They saw Nora crying.
They saw me standing over her with Lily in my arms.
They saw the red mark on Nora’s cheek.
And I understood her plan immediately.
“Sir, step back,” one officer ordered.
“I called you.”
“Step back now.”
I did.
Lily cried, “She tried to hurt Daddy!”
Nora sobbed louder.
“She’s been turned against me. Daniel hit me. He’s unstable. Ever since Claire died, he has been seeing conspiracies everywhere.”
The officer looked at me.
“Sir, put the child down.”
“No,” Lily said, clutching me.
I forced my voice steady.
“There is a broken cup in the dining room. The tea is reacting on the floor. Our housekeeper saw Nora prepare it.”
Marta appeared behind us.
Nora snapped her head toward her.
Marta flinched.
Then she lifted her chin.
“He is telling the truth.”
The second officer went to the dining room.
The first stayed with us.
Nora wiped tears from her face.
“She works for him. Of course she’ll lie.”
I looked at Marta.
Her lips trembled, but she did not back down.
“I have video,” she said.
Nora went still.
“What video?” I asked.
Marta pulled her phone from her apron pocket.
“I started recording when Mrs. Nora told Lily to stay upstairs. Miss Lily kept saying the tea smelled like Mommy’s bad medicine.”
Nora stood so fast the officer stepped in front of her.
“Give me that phone.”
Marta backed away.
“No.”
The officer held out his hand.
“Ma’am, give it to me.”
Marta handed it over.
The video played.
Nora stood at the dining table alone.
She opened a small blue bottle.
She squeezed drops into my tea.
Then Lily’s voice came from the doorway.
“That’s Mommy’s bottle.”
Nora spun around.
“You didn’t see anything.”
“I did.”
“If you tell your father, I’ll send you away like I sent your mother.”
The hallway vanished beneath me.
I could not move.
Could not breathe.
Lily whispered, “I told you.”
The officer’s face changed.
He looked at Nora.
“Turn around.”
Nora screamed.
“No. That video is fake. She hates me. They all hate me.”
The second officer returned from the dining room.
“We need hazmat and detectives. Whatever is in that cup ate through the finish on the marble.”
Nora stopped screaming.
Her eyes locked on me.
“It was supposed to look natural,” she whispered.
The officer grabbed her wrists.
I covered Lily’s ears.
May you like
But I still heard Nora laugh.
“Claire should have stayed dead the first time.”
