Chapter 2 - The Locked Laundry Room
Sawyer carried Gracie toward his car while rainwater glistened across the stone patio.
“Stay with me, sweetheart.”
Her arms tightened weakly around his neck.
“My rabbit.”
He stopped.
Tucked beneath the sheet was her gray stuffed rabbit, one ear torn and damp.
Carolina followed them.
“You can’t take her anywhere without telling me.”
Sawyer opened the rear door.
“I’m taking my injured daughter for medical help.”
“She doesn’t need a hospital.”
Bonnie looked sharply at her daughter.
“How do you know?”
Carolina spun toward her.
“Because I was here.”
“That isn’t an answer,” Sawyer said.
Gracie made a small sound when he lowered her carefully onto the seat. He kept one hand behind her shoulders so her injured back never touched the leather.
Five minutes earlier, he had found her sitting on the laundry room floor beside a bucket of cold water.
The door had been locked from the outside.
Carolina claimed Gracie locked herself in.
But the lock was mounted in the hallway.
Sawyer closed the car door and faced his wife.
“Why was she locked in there?”
Carolina’s jaw tightened.
“She was having a tantrum.”
“She could barely stand.”
“She exaggerates when she doesn’t get attention.”
From inside the car, Gracie whispered, “I didn’t.”
Sawyer’s face hardened.
Bonnie slowly lifted her flashlight toward the hallway visible through the front door.
A thin trail of water ran from the laundry room toward the entrance.
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Mixed into it were tiny drops of blood.
👉 Then Bonnie noticed something caught beneath Carolina’s heel—and realized Gracie had not simply fallen.
