Chapter 1 - THE MARK SHE COVERED
Clara Bennett grabbed Ariel’s pointing hand and slapped her sharply across the cheek.
Ariel recoiled.
Her eyes filled instantly.
Rachel Carter ran across the pool deck.
“Don’t ever touch my daughter!”
She pulled Ariel behind her.
Clara’s face was flushed with anger.
“Teach her some manners!”
Ariel clung to Rachel’s waist, crying.
Then she pointed again.
“Mommy… Daddy’s there!”
Rachel looked toward Glen.
Her husband stood several feet away beside the drink table.
“Baby, Daddy’s right there.”
Ariel shook her head violently.
“No! On her stomach!”
Glen’s smile vanished.
Clara crossed both arms over her abdomen.
“She’s talking nonsense.”
Ariel grabbed Rachel’s hand and pulled.
“There! Look!”
Clara turned away.
Rachel stepped around her.
Glen started moving toward them.
Too fast.
Rachel saw only a glimpse before Clara covered it again.
A small dark-blue symbol low on Clara’s stomach.
Not a bruise.
Not a mole.
Not a tattoo Rachel remembered.
It looked like a tiny square with a diagonal line through it.
Ariel hid behind Rachel.
Glen stopped dead.
Clara’s face drained pale.
Rachel stared at the mark.
Then at Glen.
“Glen… what is this?”
He did not answer.
That silence was the first betrayal.
The second came seconds later.
Ariel, still crying, whispered:
“Daddy draws that.”
Rachel slowly looked down at her daughter.
“What?”
Ariel pointed toward Glen.
“On papers.”
Glen’s face changed.
Clara snapped:
“She’s three. She doesn’t know what she’s saying.”
Ariel buried her face in Rachel’s leg.
Rachel looked back at the symbol.
Something inside her went cold.
She had seen it before too.
Months ago.
On one of Glen’s rolled architectural plans.
A tiny square with a diagonal slash.
He told her it meant:
storage.
May you like
Now it was on Clara’s body.
And both of them were terrified that a three-year-old had noticed.
