Chapter 2

I pretended nothing had happened. By the time I climbed out of the closet, the two of them were dressed together.

Walter patted my head, all tenderness. "Clara, you're so good at this. Daddy looked forever and couldn't find you. Come on, let's go see Mom at the hospital."

I nodded obediently, pulling a sweet smile across my lips. "Thanks, Dad."

At the hospital, the room reeked of disinfectant.

My mom, Diane Croft, was wasted to nothing, her eyes sunk deep in their sockets—like a withered yellow rose. When she saw us, a faint light flickered in her clouded eyes.

Walter instantly put on a face of tender devotion, taking my mom's hand, his eyes going red. "Diane, how are you feeling today? Clara came to see you."

I looked at his sickening expression and sneered inside.

I walked to the bedside and took my mom's other hand, thin as a stick. Her hand was cold, without a trace of warmth.

"Mom, I'm fine, don't worry," I said softly.

She looked at me, her eyes full of longing and reluctance. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but in the end only shook her head weakly.

I couldn't tell her about Walter and Evelyn's plot. Her body couldn't take a blow like that right now.

When we left the hospital, Walter took a call. His face shifted, and he made an excuse about an urgent matter at the company and rushed off.

I knew it. He was going to see Evelyn.

I walked home alone, my mind racing.

I was only fourteen. Call the police? With no evidence, who'd believe a fourteen-year-old girl? Tell them I'd grown an eye on the back of my head? They'd just lock me up as a psych case.

If the law couldn't punish them, then I'd do it myself.

I got in touch with a seller on the dark web and paid a steep price for a few packets of high-dose rat poison.

Back home, I dumped all of it into the single malt whiskey Walter loved.

That done, I sat on the couch and quietly waited for my prey to come home.

But for days, Walter didn't touch that bottle.

Evelyn was even more wary. Every time she came over, she wouldn't drink so much as a glass of water.

They seemed to have sensed something.

And what I sensed was far more dangerous than that.