Chapter 2 - The Erased Tapes
Clara couldn't breathe.
She backed away from the study door, her crutches sinking silently into the plush carpet.
Poison.
The word echoed in her mind like a cracked bell.
Who was poisoning her?
Her father?
Evelyn?
The doctors?
She hurried back to her bedroom and locked the door behind her.
Her legs burned with a sudden, fiery ache.
For two years, the doctors said her nerves were just damaged from the car accident that killed her mother.
They said the paralysis was permanent.
But today, in the water, she had moved her foot.
The next morning, Arthur acted as though nothing had happened.
He sat at the head of the breakfast table, reading the financial newspaper.
Evelyn poured him a cup of dark coffee.
"Dr. Vance is coming this afternoon," Evelyn said smoothly.
"Clara needs her weekly injection."
Clara dropped her silver spoon onto her porcelain plate.
It made a loud, sharp clatter.
"I don't want the shot," Clara said, her voice shaking.
"It makes me feel sick."
Evelyn offered a sad, sympathetic pout.
"Oh, sweetie, I know it hurts."
"But Dr. Vance says it's the only thing keeping your muscles from wasting away."
Arthur didn’t look up from his paper.
"She will take the medicine, Evelyn."
Clara felt a cold tear slide down her cheek.
She had to find that boy again.
She had to find his mother.
After breakfast, Arthur left for his office in the city, but Clara knew he had a security room in the basement.
The cameras caught everything on the estate.
When Evelyn went to her yoga room, Clara sneaked down the basement stairs.
It took all her strength to navigate the steep steps with her crutches.
She pushed open the heavy door to the security hub.
The monitors were glowing faintly in the dark.
She scrolled back the footage to yesterday morning, looking for the garden camera.
She needed to see which way the boy had run.
She typed in the date and time.
The screen flickered.
A bold red error message flashed across the monitor.
May you like
The footage from the last forty-eight hours had been manually deleted.
Someone else in the house knew the boy had been there.
