She hadn’t only been shopping while Mia stood out there. She’d stopped to buy herself a silk scarf on the way to dinner.

Chapter 3 — The Sins of the Mother

We didn’t stay to order.

Daniel carried Mia out with her face shielded from the staring diners while I kept the camera running until we were inside the car. I didn’t trust Patricia not to ambush us at the valet stand for a counter-performance — and I didn’t trust myself if she tried.

Mia was asleep before we cleared the mall. Her head lolled against the car seat, her breathing deep and even, but her fingers kept a death grip on Daniel’s cuff.

Even unconscious, she was braced for a reprimand.

Daniel drove ten miles through the suburbs without speaking. Then he pulled into an empty gas station, put the car in park under the white canopy, and gripped the wheel until his knuckles went pale.