Chapter 1 - THE PORCH LIGHT
Linda Carter swung the heavy wooden rolling pin into Elena Carter’s lower leg.
Pain exploded upward.
Elena’s knee buckled.
She dropped hard onto the kitchen floor.
“Please… stop.”
Linda stood over her, gray-blonde hair perfectly in place, face almost bored.
Then Ethan entered.
Elena reached toward him.
“Ethan… take me to the hospital.”
He looked down at his pregnant wife trembling on the tile.
Then at the swelling already beginning along her lower leg.
“You deserved it.”
Elena stopped breathing.
Behind him, Robert Carter stood silently in the doorway.
No shock.
No protest.
Nothing.
Ethan turned away.
“You should’ve respected my mother.”
Linda placed the rolling pin on the counter as casually as if she had finished baking.
Then the three of them walked into the family room.
A football game began blaring from the television.
Elena lay on the kitchen floor.
Alone.
Her palms slid against the tile as she turned toward the back door.
That was when despair became survival.
She dragged herself forward.
One pull.
Then another.
Her injured leg trailed uselessly behind her.
The back door felt miles away.
She reached it.
Forced it open.
Rain hit her face.
Cold.
Hard.
Real.
Elena crawled into the yard.
Mud soaked her pants.
Grass tore against her hands.
Every movement sent fire through her leg.
But Mrs. Greene’s porch was only thirty yards away.
She kept going.
By the time she reached the first step, she was sobbing without sound.
Then pain knifed through her lower abdomen.
Elena froze.
“No…”
She pressed one hand to her belly.
Then lower.
Her fingers came back with a small smear of blood.
Her entire body went cold.
“My baby.”
She looked toward the neighboring house.
“MY BABY!”
The porch light snapped on.
The front door opened.
Mrs. Greene stepped out in a robe and cardigan.
She saw Elena in the rain.
Saw the blood.
Saw the dragging leg.
Then her face changed in a way Elena did not understand.
Not only horror.
Recognition.
Mrs. Greene rushed forward.
“Oh God.”
She dropped beside Elena.
Then whispered a name Elena had never heard before.
“Mara?”
Elena stared at her.
“My name is Elena.”
Mrs. Greene’s eyes filled.
“I know.”
Then she looked past Elena toward the Carter house.
May you like
And said:
“Not again.”
