Chapter 2
For one second, I forgot Ethan was tied to the chair.
I forgot the shattered window.
I forgot Sarah underneath me.
All I heard was Dad.
Even the things he did.
My father had been the safest person in my life.
He made pancakes shaped like stars.
He left notes in my lunch bag.
He worked double shifts after Mom died so Ethan and I could stay in the same school.
He was not perfect.
But he was ours.
Sarah saw the doubt flash across my face.
She fed on it.
“You don’t know anything about him,” she whispered.
I pushed her wrists harder into the floor.
“Shut up.”
“You think he died because of a heart attack?”
The garage tilted.
Dad had died in this house.
In his bedroom.
Sarah said she found him at dawn.
The doctor said cardiac arrest.
The funeral happened fast.
Too fast.
I swallowed.
“Ethan,” I said, forcing my voice steady. “Listen to me. I need you to breathe.”
His teeth chattered.
“I can’t move.”
“I know. I’m coming.”
Sarah bucked hard under me.
I lost my balance for half a second.
She twisted one hand free and grabbed a wrench from the floor.
I caught her wrist before she swung.
The wrench clanged against concrete.
“Olivia!” Ethan screamed.
That sound brought me back.
I shoved Sarah’s arm away and scrambled to my feet.
She lunged for the extension cord.
I kicked it across the garage.
Then I ran to Ethan.
The rope knots were tight.
Cruel tight.
His skin was red where the rope rubbed.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, pulling at the knots. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t let her take me again,” he sobbed.
“She won’t.”
Sarah crawled toward the side door.
I grabbed Dad’s old box cutter from the workbench and sliced through the rope.
Ethan collapsed forward into my arms.
He was freezing.
I wrapped him in Dad’s canvas work jacket hanging on the wall.
Then I called 911.
My fingers shook so badly I almost dropped the phone.
The dispatcher answered.
“What is your emergency?”
“My stepmother tied my brother in the garage and poured ice water on him,” I said. “She tried to hurt him. I have video.”
Sarah froze at the door.
Her face changed.
Not scared now.
Calculating.
“Olivia,” she said softly.
I held the phone tighter.
“She’s trying to leave,” I told the dispatcher. “Her name is Sarah Miller. Address is 418 Waverly Lane.”
Sarah smiled.
Then she reached into the drawer beside the freezer.
I knew that drawer.
Dad kept old keys there.
She pulled out a small black remote.
My heart stopped.
“What is that?”
She pressed a button.
Somewhere inside the house, a beep sounded.
Then another.
The garage workbench light flickered.
The camera feed on my phone froze.
No.
No, no, no.
Sarah held up the remote.
“You really thought your father only told you secrets?”
The dispatcher was still talking.
“Ma’am, are you safe?”
I backed away, pulling Ethan with me.
Sarah stepped closer.
“You should have listened to me. Both of you. I was trying to keep this family together.”
“You tortured him.”
“He destroyed my inheritance.”
“It was a vase!”
Sarah’s face twisted.
“It was never about the vase.”
Sirens wailed in the distance.
Sarah heard them.
So did I.
Her eyes darted to the shelves.
To the window.
To Ethan.
Then she did something that made my blood turn cold.
She slapped her own face.
Hard.
Once.
Twice.
Then she grabbed a piece of broken glass from the floor and dragged it lightly across her arm.
Ethan whimpered.
“What are you doing?”
Sarah looked at me and smiled.
“Winning.”
She threw the glass near my feet.
Then she screamed.
“She attacked me! Help! Olivia attacked me!”
The garage door burst open minutes later.
Two officers rushed in.
They saw Sarah bleeding.
Me holding a box cutter.
Ethan shivering in a chair.
And the main camera smashed on the wall.
Sarah cried perfectly.
“She lost control,” she sobbed. “She tied him up because she said he ruined her life after her father died.”
I stared at her.
I couldn’t breathe.
One officer reached toward me.
“Put the blade down.”
I dropped it.
Ethan cried, “She’s lying!”
Sarah pointed at him.
“He’s confused. He’s been sick all day.”
The officer looked at my phone.
The frozen video feed stared back.
Corrupted.
Black.
Sarah had planned for everything.
Almost everything.
Then the side door opened.
Our neighbor Mr. Alvarez stepped in holding his tablet.
His face was pale.
“I have the feed,” he said.
Sarah stopped crying.
May you like
Mr. Alvarez looked at the officers.
“Her father linked the backup to my house before he died.”
