Chapter 1 - The Hill
“GRANDMA PUSHED ME!”
Three-year-old Sophie shouted it with her face buried in her father's jacket. Ten seconds earlier, Daniel Whitmore had struck the woman who saved his daughter.
It began with a stroller rolling down the steep driveway of Whitmore House, gaining speed between the stone retaining walls. Emily Carter heard wheels rattling over the concrete seams and turned from the garden gate.
“Help!” Sophie screamed.
Emily ran. She could see the stroller pulling left toward the low iron fence and the road beyond. She caught one handle, but her shoes slid on the slope. The stroller slammed into her hip and knocked her onto the gravel. Emily wrapped both arms around the frame, twisted, and stopped it with the front wheels inches from the curb.
“Sophie? Sweetheart, look at me.”
The little girl was crying, but breathing, and still buckled into her seat. Emily released the straps and lifted her out. Her own elbow felt like it was on fire.
Daniel came running from the house. “What happened?”
His mother, Patricia, appeared at the top of the hill. “That woman pushed her! I saw it!”
“No,” Emily said. “I caught—”
Daniel took Sophie, looked at the scrape across her cheek, and lashed out before Emily finished. The slap sent Emily onto one knee.
“HOW COULD YOU?”
“Daddy!” she cried. “Grandma pushed me. Emily saved me!”
Daniel's hand remained in the air. Slowly, he turned toward his mother.
Patricia's expensive cream jacket had a streak of dark grease near the cuff. She folded that arm behind her back.
“You know how imaginative children are,” she said.
Emily stood, dizzy with pain. “Call an ambulance. She needs to be checked.”
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Daniel swallowed and took out his phone. At the top of the driveway, Patricia glanced toward the security camera above the garage. Its status light was dark.
And then she reached inside her jacket for a small silver remote.
