Lila Mercer had promised not to ruin her father’s wedding.

Evan stepped into the carriage house, his wet dress shoes sliding on the mud-slicked floor. He looked wild, his hair plastered to his forehead, his dark eyes wide with a terrifying mixture of panic and shame.

"Give me the tape, Lila," Evan said, his voice shaking. He held out his hand, but his fingers were trembling. "Give it to me, and we can fix this. We can fix all of this."

Lila pulled herself out from under the workbench, holding the portable cassette player tight against her chest like a shield.

"You killed her," Lila said. Her voice didn't shake this time. It was flat, empty, and cold. "You and Claire. You gave her the tea from the greenhouse."

Evan winced as if he had been struck across the face. He took a step back, looking toward Claire, who stood motionless in the doorway. "Claire... you said she didn't suffer. You said it was just a sleeping medicine—"

"Shut up, Evan!" Claire barked, her voice snapping like a whip in the enclosed space. She stepped past him, her mud-stained heels clicking sharply. "Are you really going to let a ten-year-old child lecture you? Look at what's in her hands! If she leaves this property with that tape, we are both going to spend the rest of our lives in a maximum-security prison!"

"She's my daughter, Claire!" Evan yelled back, turning on her.

"She's a liability!" Claire screamed. "She was a liability sixteen months ago, and she is a liability now! Give me that!"

Claire lunged forward, reaching out with her claw-like hands to grab the cassette player from Lila’s arms.

Lila ducked under Claire’s arm, scrambling toward the rear of the carriage house where the heavy wooden ladder led up to the hayloft.

"Lila, no!" Evan shouted.

Lila scrambled up the wooden rungs as fast as her small limbs could carry her. The rungs were slick with old dust and dampness, but fear gave her incredible speed. She pulled herself up onto the second-floor loft just as Claire reached the base of the ladder.

"Evan, grab her!" Claire ordered, trying to climb the rungs in her long dress, but her soaked skirts caught on the wood, trapping her legs. "Don't just stand there, you idiot! Get up there!"

Evan looked up at the loft. Through the gaps in the floorboards, he could see Lila’s terrified eyes staring down at him.

"Lila..." Evan whispered, dropping the tire iron onto the floor with a loud clang. "Please. Just... just come down. I won't let her hurt you. I swear I won't."

"You already let her hurt Mommy!" Lila screamed down at him. "You let her put the white flowers in her tea! You stood there while she fell down the stairs!"

Evan fell to his knees in the dirt, burying his face in his hands, breaking into ragged, pathetic sobs. "I didn't know... I didn't think she would actually do it... I just wanted the money... I was so broke, Lila... I was so broke..."

"You disgusting coward," Claire hissed, kicking Evan in the side as she struggled free from her caught dress. She grabbed the tire iron Evan had dropped.

She turned her icy gaze up toward the loft.