Chapter 1: The Hand Over Her Mouth
My mother had one knee pressed against my nine-year-old daughter's body when I kicked open the bedroom door.
Lily was trapped beneath her, sobbing through the hand clamped over her mouth.
"SHUT UP!" Marlene hissed.
"IF YOU OPEN YOUR MOUTH, YOUR MOTHER WILL D*E!"
I grabbed my mother and pulled her away.
Lily scrambled behind me, shaking so badly she could barely hold my hand.
"What are you doing to my daughter?!"
Marlene straightened her cream blouse as if I had interrupted an ordinary conversation.
"That brat is a liar," she said coldly.
"Do you believe her, or do you believe me?"
Then Lily pointed toward Marlene's black leather handbag on the chair.
"Dad…"
Marlene's face changed.
She lunged for the bag.
"DON'T LET HER TAKE IT BACK!"
I got there first.
Marlene cl@wed at my arm while I opened it.
I looked inside.
Something in me broke.
I sl@pped her hard enough to send her stumbling onto the floor.
"Get out of my house — now."
But before she left, I looked into that bag one more time.
And realized Lily had been trying to protect her mother all along.
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What was inside that bag — and how long had Lily been carrying this secret alone?
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