Chapter 1 - THE BREAD
Lily Bennett was crawling toward the kitchen table when Margaret struck her hand away.
Outside, rain hammered the windows and wind shook the back door in its frame.
Inside, a single piece of bread sat on a plate less than three feet from Lily.
She reached again.
“Grandma… please, just one bite!”
Margaret grabbed Lily by the shoulder and struck her guarded upper arm.
“You don’t deserve anything!”
Lily cried and curled inward.
Her pale-pink pajamas hung loosely from her small frame.
Her bare feet slipped against the kitchen tile when she tried to rise.
Margaret shoved the plate farther away.
Lily reached toward the chair.
Her legs buckled.
Margaret struck her guarded shoulder once more.
Then Lily swayed.
Her eyes unfocused.
She collapsed.
The back door flew open.
Claire Bennett rushed inside in a black raincoat, soaked from the storm.
She saw Lily motionless on the floor and dropped everything.
“Lily! Open your eyes!”
She pulled her niece carefully against her chest.
Lily moved weakly.
Claire felt relief for half a second.
Then she saw how light the child felt.
Too light.
Her fear became rage.
She turned toward Margaret.
“Her parents are gone…”
Margaret stiffened.
Claire stood with Lily held securely against her.
“How could you do this to her?!”
Margaret’s face did not show guilt.
It showed defiance.
“You don’t know what she’s been eating.”
Claire stared.
“What does that mean?”
“She steals.”
“Food?”
“She takes what isn’t hers.”
Claire looked at the bread.
Then at the cabinets.
She opened one.
Nearly empty.
Another.
Empty.
The refrigerator held:
mustard,
half a carton of milk,
two eggs,
and a stack of labeled plastic containers.
Every container read:
RUSSELL FAMILY.
Claire frowned.
“Who are the Russells?”
Margaret crossed her arms.
“People who need it.”
“More than Lily?”
Margaret said nothing.
Claire opened the freezer.
Dozens of meals.
Soup.
Casseroles.
Frozen meat.
All labeled for the Russell family.
Claire slowly turned.
“You have food.”
“That food is not ours.”
“Then whose money bought it?”
Margaret’s expression changed.
Claire saw fear beneath the anger.
She carried Lily to the kitchen chair and wrapped her in her raincoat.
Then she picked up one envelope taped to a freezer bag.
RETURN TO:
ANONYMOUS RESTITUTION ACCOUNT.
Claire froze.
Restitution.
For what?
Margaret reached for the envelope.
Claire moved it away.
“Who are the Russells?”
Margaret whispered:
“The family your brother destroyed.”
Claire stopped breathing.
May you like
Her brother—Lily’s father—had been dead for nine months.
And Margaret had apparently spent those nine months trying to repay someone for the way he died.
