Chapter 2
The headlights stopped against the wall.
Charla smoothed her stained skirt.
"You're making this into something it wasn't."
Ray's truck door slammed outside.
Josie took one step toward the sound.
Then she caught herself against the couch.
Verna reached her before she fell.
"Sit here, honey."
She settled Josie at the couch's far end.
Tyler pulled his blanket out of the way.
The front door opened on a blast of cold.
Ray entered in his insulated work jacket.
His eyes went from the spill to Josie.
"What happened?"
Charla moved toward him.
"She stumbled while I was loading the stove."
Verna stood beside the couch.
"Play the recording before you answer her."
"I caught her," Charla said.
"That's what your video shows."
Ray looked at the open stove.
Then he looked at his daughter's loose shoelace.
For a moment, he didn't move.
Charla touched his sleeve.
"You know how she's been."
Josie folded her marked wrist beneath her other hand.
Ray shut the stove door.
"Verna, let me see."
"Ask her what she's been stealing first."
Charla pointed at the older woman's cardigan.
"Elena's jewelry, for one thing."
Verna drew the chain over her collar.
The small gold ring swung against her apron.
Ray stared at it.
He had bought it at a jewelry counter in Madison.
Elena had chosen the plainest one.
"She asked Verna to keep that," he said.
"Until Josie was old enough."
Charla's hand dropped from his sleeve.
"Fine, but she's been filling that child's head."
Verna unlocked her phone.
She held it where Ray could see.
The first sound was the mug hitting wood.
Then came Charla's voice.
Look what you did.
Ray watched without blinking.
On the screen, his daughter's shoes slid toward the stove.
He reached for the phone.
Verna let him hold it.
The threat played through the small speaker.
Behind him, Tyler stopped rubbing the blanket's edge.
Ray lowered himself in front of Josie.
"Can I see your arm?"
She glanced past him at Charla.
He moved until his body blocked that view.
"Just me, sweetheart."
Josie lifted her wrist.
Ray didn't touch the red marks.
He held his palm beneath her hand instead.
"Did the stove burn you?"
She shook her head.
"Did she hurt you anywhere else?"
Josie's chin sank.
Charla stepped forward.
"Don't put words in her mouth."
Ray turned.
"Stay there."
Verna brought a kitchen chair beside the couch.
"The other recordings aren't like tonight."
"Then why say six weeks?"
"Because six weeks ago, I started keeping track."
She showed him a dated clip.
Josie struggled to hold a pencil.
Charla called her lazy from across the table.
Another showed Josie asleep over an untouched supper.
A third caught Charla threatening to send her away.
"I thought she was sick, too," Verna said.
"But sick children still get treated kindly."
"You never told me this."
"I tried, Ray."
His mouth opened.
Then he looked at his phone.
There were Verna's messages between delivery updates.
Call when you're alone.
Please don't ask Charla first.
He rubbed his forehead.
"I should've called you back."
"I should've gone outside this family sooner."
Verna's voice broke on the last word.
"I didn't know she was grabbing her."
Josie leaned against the couch arm.
Her eyelids kept falling.
"She's always tired," Charla said.
"That's why I've been asking for help."
Verna looked down at the mug.
"She wasn't like this before supper."
She took a clean kitchen towel.
Using it around the handle, she lifted the cup upright.
A thin smear remained below the rim.
Something pale clung near the bottom.
"Don't throw that away," Ray said.
Charla crossed half the room.
"It's cocoa."
Verna set the mug on the side table.
Ray stood between Charla and the couch.
"Then leave it alone."
His wife stopped.
Verna pointed toward the mudroom.
"I kept the school notes, too."
"What school notes?"
"The ones that never reached your truck."
Ray looked back at the mug.
The remaining cocoa had drained onto the towel.
Then Ray lifted the saved mug. Something white and crushed rolled into his palm, and he went very still.