Chapter 2 - THE CANISTER
“Don’t touch it.”
Victoria’s voice sliced through the foyer.
Julian froze.
His hand hovered inches above the black canister.
For one second, nobody moved.
Chloe lay unconscious at the bottom of the staircase.
Eleanor stood beside her.
Julian crouched near the grease.
Victoria remained above them, one hand gripping the railing, the other holding her phone.
And then Julian looked up.
Not at his wife.
At the phone.
“Victoria.”
“Step away from it.”
His expression changed.
“You don’t understand.”
She almost laughed.
“I understand your mother just screamed that I was supposed to fall.”
Eleanor’s face collapsed.
“I was upset.”
“Because Chloe fell instead?”
“No!”
Victoria lifted her phone.
The recording icon glowed red.
Eleanor went silent.
Julian stood slowly.
“Turn that off.”
“No.”
“Victoria.”
“Move away from the canister.”
He did not.
So Victoria called 911.
Not secretly.
Right in front of him.
“My sister-in-law fell down a flight of stairs. She’s unconscious. I’m eight months pregnant, and there is grease deliberately spread across the staircase.”
Julian’s face drained.
Victoria continued.
“My mother-in-law admitted I was the intended victim. My husband is attempting to remove the container used.”
Julian stepped backward.
Good.
The dispatcher instructed Victoria not to come down.
She stayed exactly where she was.
Four minutes later, sirens entered the gated drive.
Julian finally moved toward Chloe.
Too late to look like concern.
Paramedics took over.
One officer blocked off the stairs.
Another photographed the grease.
A third took the canister into evidence.
Eleanor immediately changed her story.
She had been cleaning.
At three in the morning.
With industrial lubricant.
On marble stairs.
The officer stared at her.
“Ma’am, do you usually clean staircases with machine grease?”
Eleanor stopped talking.
---
Chloe regained consciousness in the ambulance.
Disoriented.
Crying.
Her wrist was fractured.
Two ribs cracked.
Concussion.
Painful.
Serious.
But alive.
Then, as paramedics prepared to transport her, she caught Victoria’s wrist.
“Don’t let Mom near me.”
Victoria froze.
“Why?”
Chloe began crying harder.
“She knows.”
“Knows what?”
Julian appeared near the ambulance doors.
Chloe saw him.
Her face changed.
“No.”
She tried to pull herself backward.
“Keep him away.”
The paramedic stepped between them.
Julian stared.
“Chloe, what are you doing?”
She looked at Victoria.
Then whispered:
“The baby isn’t the first one.”
Victoria stopped breathing.
“What?”
Chloe’s lips trembled.
“Mom did this before.”
The ambulance doors began closing.
Victoria caught the edge.
“Did what before?”
Chloe looked toward Julian.
Then toward Eleanor.
And said:
“Ask them what happened to Julian’s first wife.”
The doors shut.
Victoria stood in the driveway.
Rain began falling lightly.
Behind her, Julian said:
“She’s medicated.”
Victoria turned.
“What first wife?”
Silence.
“Julian.”
He looked away.
And in that moment, Victoria understood something worse than the life-insurance policy.
Her husband had been married before.
May you like
And somehow, nobody had ever told her.
---
