Chapter 1 - Nobody's Saving You
The bucket came down before seven-year-old Lily Hart could close her eyes.
Filthy water slammed over her head, flattening her pale green dress against her knees. Mud filled her ears. She stumbled backward, coughing, while brown streams ran through her hair and into her white socks.
Vanessa stood over her with the empty metal bucket.
"Cry harder," she said. "Nobody's saving you."
Lily rubbed her stinging eyes. Since her mother died three years earlier, the garden had felt like the one safe place left. Not anymore.
Across the lawn, Daniel Hart stopped beside the gate. He had come home early because Lily's school play had been canceled. He was still holding a paper bag with the cinnamon rolls she liked.
For a second, he couldn't make sense of what he saw. Then Vanessa laughed.
Daniel dropped the bag and ran.
"Step away from her. Now."
Vanessa turned. "Daniel, you're making this--"
He took the bucket from her hand, set it on the grass, and stood between her and Lily.
"Stay away from my daughter."
"She threw dirt at me first!" Vanessa snapped.
Lily's knees shook. "I didn't, Daddy."
"I know." Daniel crouched, checking her eyes for grit. "I'm here. You're safe with me."
He had proposed to Vanessa four months earlier, believing she wanted to help raise Lily. Now his daughter flinched when Vanessa moved.
Then Vanessa's face changed. She wasn't looking at Daniel or the child. She was staring at the patio.
June Alvarez, who tended the grounds twice a week, stood there with a phone raised in both hands.
"I got all of it," June said.
Vanessa's voice turned thin. "You can't record me."
June lowered the phone just enough for Daniel to see its screen.
"The bucket isn't the worst part," she said. "You need to hear what Vanessa said before you came outside."
May you like
She pressed play.
And Daniel heard his fiancee say a name he knew from his daughter's medical records.
