Chapter 8 — Realization Settles In
The silence in the living room stretches out awkwardly.
Rachel feels the heat rising into her cheeks.
She looks down at her own clenched hands, then over at her daughter sitting quietly on the rug.
The pieces click together in her mind with sudden, brutal clarity.
She remembers the sudden afternoon storm that blew through the neighborhood just an hour earlier.
The wind had whipped violently against the back of the house, rattling the loose latch on the patio door.
The gate leading from the yard to the side patio must have blown wide open in the heavy gusts.
And the golden retriever, terrified of the loud thunder claps, must have pushed its way inside through the loose latch.
It had darted across the hardwood floor in a blind panic before anyone even noticed.
And she had blamed her little girl without listening to a single word of defense.
Rachel turns her head to look directly at Chloe.
The expression on Rachel’s face shifts from stubborn frustration to absolute shock and deep, agonizing guilt.
Tears well up in Chloe’s wide, hurt eyes as she clutches her stuffed bear a little tighter against her chest.
Rachel drops slowly to her knees on the edge of the muddy rug to apologize to her daughter.