Chapter 1 - THE CRY INSIDE THE MACHINE

The baby was crying from inside the washing machine.

For one frozen second, I stood in my sister's laundry-room doorway with a basket of warm towels against my hip and tried to make the sound belong somewhere else. It couldn't. Owen's thin, panicked cries bounced off white tile and metal. The washer was off, but the lid had been lowered over him until seconds before I walked in.

Lenora Voss stood over the machine with both hands on the lid.

"What are you doing?" I shouted.

She turned slowly, almost offended. "He was already there."

I dropped the towels and ran. Owen was on a damp bath towel inside the steel drum, red-faced and shaking. I lifted him against my chest.

"Give him to me," Lenora said.

"Get away from us."

Her hand cracked across my mouth. I tasted blood. Owen screamed harder.

The ceramic vase beside the utility sink was the first thing my hand found. I swung once. It clipped Lenora near the temple. She staggered, then lunged, catching Owen's blanket and wrenching him from my arms.

"He belongs with me!" she screamed.

The front door slammed open.

Daniel appeared in the hallway in his work jacket. His eyes moved from my split lip to his mother holding his newborn son.

"Put him down."

"Daniel, she attacked me."

"Put. Him. Down."

Lenora backed toward the kitchen. Daniel crossed the room, shoved her away from the baby, and caught Owen securely against his chest.

"Get out of my house."

Lenora pressed a hand to her bleeding hairline. "You're choosing her?"

"I'm choosing my son."

Her face changed. "You still don't know what your wife did to get him."

Daniel went rigid.

"The chemotherapy left you sterile," Lenora said. "Ask Elise who the biological father is."

Only Daniel, Elise, and I were supposed to know about the infertility.

Then a phone buzzed inside Lenora's coat.

Daniel stared. "That's Elise's phone."

He pulled it from her pocket. A new message glowed on the screen, sent from Elise's number to an unknown contact:

I got him alone. The next part starts tonight.

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Daniel looked at his mother.

"What did you start?"