Chapter 1 - I WAS NEVER CRIPPLED
The wooden manure shovel hit Emma across the lower leg before Rachel could reach her.
Emma cried out and dropped onto the gravel.
“MOMMY!”
Rachel shoved both hands against the wheels of her chair and rolled forward as hard as she could.
“DON’T TOUCH HER!”
Diane Miller stood over the eight-year-old like she had done nothing wrong.
Plaid shirt.
Jeans.
Jaw tight.
She lowered the shovel toward Emma.
“PATHETIC LITTLE BRAT.”
Emma crawled behind Rachel’s wheelchair and grabbed her mother’s arm.
Diane laughed.
Then she looked directly at Rachel’s chair.
“And YOU can’t even stand.”
Rachel’s face went still.
Diane pointed between them.
“Useless. BOTH OF YOU.”
The crying stopped.
Rachel reached down.
Locked the wheelchair brakes.
Emma looked up.
Rachel planted both feet on the gravel.
Diane’s smile weakened.
Rachel gripped the armrests.
Pushed.
Stood.
Completely straight.
Diane’s mouth opened.
“What the hell…?”
Rachel stepped away from the wheelchair.
Then kicked it backward out of her path.
The chair rolled several feet and stopped beside the red barn.
Rachel moved between Diane and Emma.
“I was never crippled.”
Diane’s face drained pale.
Emma stared up in shock.
Rachel did not explain.
Not yet.
Instead she crouched beside Emma.
“Can you stand?”
Emma nodded through tears.
Rachel checked the leg.
Bruised.
Painful.
No obvious deformity.
Then Rachel looked back at Diane.
“You just gave me what I needed.”
Diane tightened both hands around the shovel.
“What are you talking about?”
A pickup truck turned into the farm driveway.
Diane looked toward it.
Rachel did not.
She already knew who was inside.
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Her attorney.
And a county child-welfare investigator.
