Chapter 1 - THE HUNGRY PHONE CALL
Carol Nichols slapped Audrey so hard the plate of eggs flew out of her hand.
Scrambled eggs hit the kitchen floor.
Toast slid beneath the old dining table.
The plate cracked near Audrey’s wet shoes, yellow pieces of food spreading across tile that felt colder than the storm outside.
Lily cried out behind her.
Audrey’s head snapped sideways from the slap, rainwater flying from the ends of her dark-brown hair. For one second, the dim kitchen light split into two blurry circles.
But she did not fall.
She could not.
Her eight-year-old niece stood behind her in thin pale-blue pajamas and socks, clutching a cracked pink flip phone to her chest like it was the only thing in the house that still belonged to her.
Roy Nichols slammed the kitchen door shut behind them.
The sound shook the old wooden cabinets.
He stepped in front of the exit, broad shoulders filling the space, gray hair damp from the storm, dark plaid shirt stretched tight across his chest.
Carol stood near the table in her cream floral cardigan and pearl earrings, breathing hard, one hand still raised from striking her daughter-in-law’s sister.
“You had no right to come here!”
Audrey slowly turned her face back.
Her cheek burned.
Her jaw trembled once, then steadied.
Behind her, Lily gripped the back of Audrey’s wet black jacket with tiny fingers.
Audrey placed her entire body between the child and both grandparents.
Her voice came out cold.
“She called because she was starving.”
Carol’s mouth tightened.
“She lies for attention.”
Audrey reached for the refrigerator handle.
Roy moved half a step forward.
“Don’t touch things in my house.”
Audrey opened it anyway.
The refrigerator light flickered over nearly empty shelves.
A half-empty jar of mustard.
One cracked egg.
A bottle of expired creamer.
A plastic container with something dried at the edges.
No milk.
No fruit.
No leftovers.
No food for a child.
Lily silently reached into the pocket of her pajamas and took out a small sandwich bag of crushed crackers. She placed it on the table like evidence she was ashamed to own.
Audrey stared at it.
Then at the padlocked pantry door beside the counter.
Carol’s face tightened.
Roy’s hand moved toward his pocket.
Audrey’s eyes shifted across the table.
A cruise brochure.
A department-store receipt.
Loose cash.
A new television manual.
All sitting beside an empty fruit bowl in a kitchen where an eight-year-old had been hiding cracker dust in her pajamas.
Audrey pulled out her smartphone and began taking pictures.
The refrigerator.
The cracker bag.
The locked pantry.
The expensive receipt.
The cruise brochure.
Roy lunged for the phone.
Audrey jerked it against her chest and stepped backward, keeping Lily behind her.
Roy’s voice dropped into a threat.
“Leave now, or you lose her forever.”
Audrey looked at him.
He had said it like he had already practiced how.
Before she could answer, Lily’s cracked pink flip phone vibrated in her small hands.
Everyone froze.
Lily looked down at the unreadable incoming number.
Carol’s face drained of color.
Roy reached for the phone.
Audrey caught his wrist.
“Why are you afraid of that number?”
Roy’s jaw clenched.
Carol gripped the edge of the table.
Lily looked up at Audrey with wide, terrified eyes.
Audrey took the phone gently from her niece and raised it to her ear.
For one second, there was only storm static.
Rain.
A faint crackle.
A breath.
A man’s shaky voice came through the line.
“Audrey… don’t let them know I called.”
Carol grabbed Roy’s sleeve so tightly her knuckles whitened.
Roy looked toward the old family photograph on the refrigerator.
Lily stared at the phone as if she knew the voice in a place deeper than memory.
At that exact moment, the padlock on the pantry door shifted by itself.
May you like
One faint metallic click.
Audrey did not look away from Carol and Roy.
