Chapter 3 - The Voice in the Hallway
I switched off Daniel’s desk lamp.
Footsteps moved through the first floor.
Mom called my name.
“Claire?”
I remained silent.
A second set of footsteps entered the house.
Evan was with her.
“She took the notebook,” he said.
Mom’s answer came immediately.
“Then she hasn’t left.”
The front door locked.
I backed away from Daniel’s bedroom door.
My phone had twelve percent battery.
I texted Dr. Shah.
Call police.
Forged guardianship documents found.
I attached one photograph before the signal dropped.
The house had always been unreliable for reception, but Dad had installed a wired emergency phone in his study.
The study was across the hall.
I opened Daniel’s door and listened.
Mom and Evan were climbing the stairs.
There was no time to reach the study.
I slipped into the narrow linen closet beside Daniel’s room.
The door had slats, allowing me to see a thin slice of the hallway.
Mom entered Daniel’s bedroom first.
She went directly to the hidden drawer.
“It’s empty.”
Evan swore.
“She knows.”
“She suspects.”
“There’s a difference.”
“She took Daniel to the hospital.”
Mom lowered her voice.
“She always believed she was smarter than us.”
Evan walked into view.
The gentle, charming expression he wore around strangers had disappeared.
“Then handle her.”
“She’s my daughter.”
“You handled Richard.”
The hallway seemed to tilt.
Richard was our father.
He had died eighteen months earlier after what doctors called a sudden cardiac complication.
Mom had been beside him.
Evan had entered our lives six weeks after the funeral.
At least, that was the story they had told us.
Mom stepped closer to Evan.
“Don’t say his name in this house.”
“Why?”
“Are you afraid the walls recorded that too?”
Evan laughed quietly.
Then he turned toward the closet.
I stopped breathing.
His shoes approached.
One step.
Then another.
His hand touched the closet handle.
A siren sounded outside.
Evan spun around.
Mom rushed toward the window.
“Did Claire call them?”
“She couldn’t have.”
Red and blue light spilled across the hallway walls.
Someone pounded on the front door.
“Police.”
“Open the door.”
Evan moved toward the rear staircase.
Mom grabbed his sleeve.
“You can’t leave me here.”
“They don’t have anything.”
“They have Daniel.”
His words silenced her.
I waited until they moved downstairs.
Then I stepped from the closet and called Dr. Shah.
She answered immediately.
“The police are at your house.”
“What about Daniel?”
“He’s with a patient advocate.”
“Your mother tried to present a court order, but the document number belongs to an unrelated property case.”
I closed my eyes.
“Keep her away from him.”
“She isn’t here.”
“She came back to the house.”
Dr. Shah paused.
“No, Claire.”
“Your mother is standing outside Daniel’s treatment room right now.”
A floorboard creaked behind me.
I turned.
Mom stood at the end of the hallway.
Her phone was pressed to her ear.
She smiled.
“You always were too easy to frighten.”
May you like
The woman beside me was not my mother.
It was someone wearing her coat.
