Chapter 1

The phone rang, a harsh sound in my quiet dorm room.

It was late, too late for good news.

"Sarah? It's Officer Davies, local PD."

My heart jumped.

"There's been an incident at your family's home."

"What kind of incident?" My voice was small.

"You need to come. Your mother... Eleanor... she's gone. Your father, David, your brother, Michael, and your grandmother, Rose... they're deceased."

Deceased.

The word hung in the air, cold and sharp.

I dropped the phone.

My legs felt like water.

Somehow, I found my keys, ran out of the dorm, into my old car.

The drive was a blur, streetlights smearing past.

Red and blue lights pulsed blocks away from my house, our house.

Yellow tape, a lot of it, stretched across the lawn.

Neighbors stood in small, whispering groups.

I pushed past an officer at the tape.

"I'm Sarah, this is my house."

He looked at me with pity.

Detective Miller met me at the porch, his face grim.

"Sarah, I'm sorry."

He didn't need to say more.

The living room was a nightmare.

Blood, too much blood.

They told me Eleanor did it.

My mother.

The woman who baked cookies for my class, who read me stories until I fell asleep.

They said she recovered from her rare disease, a miracle, then killed them all.

Her husband, her son, her mother-in-law.

Then she vanished.

"The Miracle Cure Murders," someone whispered.

The words echoed in the sudden, awful silence of my mind.

It didn't make sense.

None of it made sense.

My mother, a killer?

Impossible.