Chapter 1
I came home early and found my mother-in-law pinning my three-year-old daughter against the couch, trying to force a white pill between her lips. When my little girl screamed, “Mommy, don’t let Grandma make me sleep again,” my blood went cold.
I dropped my purse and ran across the living room.
“Get your hands off her!”
My mother-in-law, Diane, spun around, but she didn’t release Lily.
“She needs this,” she snapped.
Lily was crying so hard she could barely breathe.
“No, Mommy! No medicine!”
I ripped my daughter out of Diane’s arms and saw half a crushed tablet stuck to the corner of Lily’s mouth.
“What did you give her?”
Diane reached for Lily again.
“Stop being dramatic, Emily.”
I slapped her hand away, then slapped her across the face when she tried to grab my daughter.
The room went silent.
Diane slowly touched her cheek and stared at me like I was the one who had done something terrible.
“You just made the biggest mistake of your life.”
“What medication is this?”
She didn’t answer.
I carried Lily into the kitchen, rinsed her mouth, and called my husband, Daniel.
He picked up on the second ring.
But before I could explain, he said, “Mom, is Emily home already?”
I froze.
He knew Diane was there.
“Daniel, what is your mother giving our daughter?”
Silence.
Then he whispered, “Emily, don’t call anyone.”
My hands started shaking.
“Why would you say that?”
Behind me, Diane walked into the kitchen holding her phone.
“You weren’t supposed to come home until six,” she said.
Lily buried her face against my neck.
Then she whispered something that made my knees weak.
“Grandma gives me the sleepy candy when Daddy leaves.”
I stared at Diane.
“How many times?”
Diane’s face changed.
Daniel shouted through the phone, “Emily, listen to me before you do something stupid!”
I looked at the crushed pill on the counter and grabbed an empty plastic bag.
“I’m taking this to the hospital.”
Diane suddenly lunged toward me.
I stepped back, shielding Lily.
That was when a small prescription bottle fell from Diane’s pocket and rolled across the floor.
There was no pharmacy label on it.
Just a handwritten sticker.
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And on that sticker was my daughter’s name followed by two words that made Daniel go completely silent when I read them aloud.
“DNA appointment.”
