Chapter 2

I scrambled up, my heart hammering against my ribs.

It was the day. The day Karen used that damned utility lamp.

I burst out of the guest bedroom they' d grudgingly given me.

There she was. Lily. My Lily.

Naked, wailing, under that hideous, hot lamp.

Karen sat on the couch, phone in hand, oblivious.

"Get your hands off my daughter!" I screamed, a voice I didn' t recognize, raw and powerful.

I snatched Lily, her tiny body cold despite the heat lamp.

Karen looked up, startled, then annoyed. "What' s your problem, Sarah? I' m helping."

"Helping?" I spat. "You' re cooking her! Doctors said sunlight, gentle warmth, not this industrial furnace!"

Mike shuffled in from the kitchen, a half-eaten sandwich in his hand. "Sarah, what' s going on? Apologize to Mom."

Apologize?

The meek, dutiful wife he knew was gone, burned away in gas and grief.

"Apologize?" I laughed, a harsh, broken sound. "You want me to apologize to the woman who' s trying to kill my baby with her Stone Age stupidity?"

I turned on him, kicking his shin hard. "You useless mama' s boy. You' d let her kill us all to save a buck, wouldn' t you?"

He yelped, dropping his sandwich.

Karen lunged at me, her face contorted in fury. "How dare you!"

I sidestepped, pulling Lily closer, and slammed the bedroom door shut.

There was a sickening thud, followed by Karen' s shriek of pain.

I didn' t look back.

Inside the room, I checked Lily. She was cold, her breathing shallow.

The rage gave way to icy fear. Not again. I wouldn' t let it happen again.

Footsteps outside. Mike' s panicked voice.

"Mom! Are you okay? Mom!"

Then Karen, wailing, "She attacked me! My head! I' m bleeding!"

Good, I thought, a flicker of dark satisfaction. Let her bleed.

I focused on Lily, warming her with my body, whispering promises.

"I' ll protect you this time, baby girl. I swear it."

My knowledge of their past, their future, it was my weapon now.

And I would use it.