Instead they had kept each other safe, with held hands and shifted bodies and a six-year-old’s whispered plea to spare her sister, while their father chased mergers on another continent, believing he was giving them everything.

They had everything, and they had been protecting each other from the one thing everything cannot buy protection from: the absence of a parent who is paying attention.

Chapter 8 — Do Not Touch Her

“Get upstairs to your rooms,” Chloe ordered the girls.

“Now.

I want you out of my sight.”

Sofia looked up at the high shelf where her rabbit sat, and her small voice squeaked.

“Please.