Chapter 1 - The Children on the Floor
“We’ll behave,” Maya whispered through trembling lips. “Please don’t be angry.”
Gideon Mercer stopped at the end of the hallway with one hand still gripping his briefcase.
For several seconds, his mind refused to understand what he was seeing.
His eight year old daughter was huddled against the wall in a wrinkled pale blue dress. Her bare feet rested on the cold hardwood floor. One arm circled her two year old brother while the other held a thin baby blanket around his shaking body.
Toby’s small pajamas were damp near the knees.
His lips looked almost blue.
A plastic cup lay on its side beside them. Milk spread across the polished floor beneath white nursery ribbons that Isla had chosen only weeks earlier.
Isla stood over the children with her arms folded.
She wore a pale blue satin dress, her blonde hair arranged in the same perfect bun she had worn at dinner. Her expression held no alarm, no shame, and no concern.
Only annoyance.
Gideon’s briefcase slipped from his hand and struck the floor.
The sound made Maya flinch so violently that she covered Toby’s head.
Gideon felt something inside him break.
“Why are my children on the floor?”
Isla turned calmly.
“You’re home early.”
“That is not an answer.”
“Maya spilled milk in the nursery. She needed consequences.”
Gideon crossed the hallway in three steps and dropped to his knees.
“Maya.”
His daughter pulled Toby closer.
“Please don’t take him.”
Her words were barely audible.
Gideon stopped reaching.
“I’m not taking him away from you.”
“You always leave.”
The sentence struck harder than any accusation Isla could have made.
Toby made a weak sound against Maya’s shoulder.
Gideon touched his son’s hand.
It was ice cold.
He looked toward the wall thermostat.
Fifty six degrees.
The Seattle night outside was cold and wet. The hallway felt like an open refrigerator.
“Why is the temperature this low?”
Isla gave a small shrug.
“The heating system is acting up.”
Maya shook her head.
“She turns it down.”
Isla’s eyes sharpened.
“Maya.”
The girl immediately lowered her face.
Gideon saw the fear.
Not ordinary fear of punishment.
Conditioned fear.
He loosened the blanket from Maya’s grip and lifted Toby carefully. The little boy resisted at first, reaching desperately for his sister.
“It’s okay,” Maya whispered to him. “Daddy’s here.”
Toby finally settled against Gideon’s shoulder.
His small body trembled beneath the pajamas.
Gideon looked at Maya.
“What did you mean when you said Isla locks you out?”
Maya’s eyes filled.
“She puts Toby and me in the hallway when you’re gone.”
“For how long?”
“I don’t know.”
Isla stepped closer.
“She is confused. Children exaggerate time.”
Maya’s mouth tightened.
“Sometimes until morning.”
The hallway became silent.
Then the baby monitor on the console table crackled.
A recording began playing through the speaker.
Isla’s voice.
“You stay in the hall until you learn. If Toby cries, you lose breakfast too.”
Isla’s composure finally cracked.
She lunged toward the monitor.
Gideon stepped between her and the table.
“Do not touch it.”
“It must have recorded accidentally.”
He looked toward the nursery.
The door had a small brass latch mounted on the hallway side.
A lock designed to keep someone inside.
Or keep children out.
Gideon handed Toby back to Maya and approached the door.
The handle would not turn.
Something struck the other side.
Softly.
Once.
Then again.
Gideon froze.
Maya began crying.
“Daddy, she said never to open that door.”
His hand tightened around the handle.
“Why?”
Maya looked at Isla before answering.
May you like
“Because someone is in there.”
Continue to the next part: Gideon breaks open the nursery door and discovers that Isla has been hiding another frightened child inside his home.
