Chapter 1 - The Blood on My Knuckles
“A rabid dog like her tried to slaughter my husband,” my mother screamed. “Lock her up and throw away the key.”
Every guest at the wedding reception stared at me.
I stood beneath crystal lights with blood on my white dress and bruises across both knuckles.
Wade sat in a chair near the ruined cake table, holding a bandage against his forehead. His expensive tuxedo was torn at the collar.
He looked injured.
He also looked satisfied.
My mother, Diane, stood protectively beside him.
She did not ask why her twelve-year-old daughter had attacked a grown man.
She did not ask why I was shaking.
She simply pointed toward the door and demanded someone call the police.
Then my father walked into the room.
Daniel had arrived directly from the airport wearing his military uniform. He was supposed to be overseas for another week, but his unit released him early so he could attend the wedding.
The second he saw me, his face changed.
He crossed the room and knelt in front of me.
“Ava.”
I could not look at him.
He gently turned my hands over.
The skin was split.
My wrists were red where Wade had grabbed me.
Dad looked toward the groom.
Then back at me.
“Tell me what he whispered to you before the wedding started.”
The room became silent.
Wade shifted in his chair.
Diane stepped forward.
“She attacked him without warning.”
Dad did not look at her.
“What did he say, Ava?”
I pulled my phone from my pocket.
My fingers shook as I unlocked it.
The first photograph showed Wade kneeling in our basement beside a hole in the concrete floor.
The second showed a woman’s bracelet lying beside him.
The third showed part of a human hand beneath a dirty plastic sheet.
Wade’s arrogant expression disappeared.
“She wasn’t supposed to find what’s buried in the basement,” he muttered.
Several guests gasped.
Dad took my phone.
He stared at the photographs for three long seconds.
Then he slowly rose.
“Open your phone,” he told Wade. “Show me who helped you hide her body.”
Somewhere in the upstairs hallway, a woman began crying.
I turned toward the sound.
Wade stopped breathing.
May you like
And my mother whispered a name I had never heard before.
“Rachel.”
