Chapter 1 - The Birthday Box
My hands trembled as I read the handwritten note again.
"Mom, please don't show this to anyone until you finish reading it."
"Don't trust Grandma."
"You won't believe what happened 18 years ago."
I felt the air leave my lungs completely.
The loud music and laughter from the backyard barbecue suddenly seemed a million miles away.
My twins, Leo and Max, were outside celebrating their eighteenth birthday with their friends.
But all I could focus on was the small cardboard box resting on my bed.
I reached inside the box and pulled out a tiny, faded blue hospital blanket.
It was the exact same blanket Rowan had been wrapped in during his final days in the NICU.
My mother, Eleanor, had explicitly told me she buried this blanket with him.
Tears blurred my vision as a cold wave of dread washed over me.
If this blanket was here, it meant my mother had lied to me about the most painful day of my life.
I walked over to the bedroom window and looked down at the backyard.
Leo and Max were laughing near the grill with my husband, Mark.
But my mother was not with them.
I scanned the perimeter of our property and spotted her standing near the side gate.
She was whispering frantically to a tall man wearing a dark suit.
The man handed her a thick manila envelope, and she quickly shoved it into her large designer purse.
May you like
Before I could process what I was seeing, the man turned and looked directly up at my bedroom window.
He smiled a chilling, completely emotionless smile and pointed a single finger at me.
