CHAPTER 1 "Chloe looked at the glass. Then she looked at me.
"Chloe looked at the glass.
Then she looked at me.
The little girl seemed nervous.
As if she wasn't sure whether she should say the words out loud.
“Because she changes it.”
My hand froze halfway to the juice.
“What do you mean?”
Chloe pointed toward the tray.
“Every morning.”
A strange chill moved through my chest.
The bedroom suddenly felt colder.
Behind me, I heard Audrey's voice floating from the hallway.
She was coming back.
Fast.
“Chloe,” I said carefully, “what do you mean she changes it?”
The little girl swallowed hard.
Then reached into the pocket of her pink jacket.
And pulled out something tiny.
A small white bottle cap.
My stomach tightened instantly.
“I found it in the trash.”
The bedroom door opened.
Audrey stopped cold.
Her smile disappeared.
For the first time in a year, I saw fear on her face.
Not concern.
Not confusion.
Fear.
“Chloe,” Audrey said sharply.
The child stepped behind my wheelchair.
Clutching the bottle cap.
“She pours it in after she makes the juice.”
Silence.
Heavy.
Terrible silence.
Audrey laughed nervously.
“She's a child, Bennett.”
But the laughter sounded wrong.
Forced.
Desperate.
I looked at the cap.
Then at Audrey.
Then back at Chloe.
The little girl pointed toward the bathroom.
“The bottle is still there.”
Audrey moved immediately.
Too quickly.
Toward the bathroom door.
Toward whatever was hidden inside.
That was all I needed.
“Stop.”
My voice cracked through the room.
Audrey froze.
For one brief second, neither of us moved.
Then I noticed something else.
Not the panic.
Not the bottle cap.
Not the way Chloe was trembling.
It was Audrey's eyes.
Because they weren't looking at me anymore.
They were looking at the orange juice.
Like she was terrified I might finally understand what had been happening for the last twelve months.
May you like
And when the groundskeeper stepped into the doorway behind her and quietly said,
“Sir... I think you need to hear what my daughter saw in the greenhouse yesterday...”
