“She does now,” Victoria said.

“The doctor told us she needs complete quiet in a locked room until her fever breaks.”

She planted herself right in front of Chloe’s door, keeping her palms pressed flat against her waist.

“You need to let us raise our own child,” she said, her whisper slicing through the quiet hallway.

At three fifteen I went out the side door toward the garage to fetch my black umbrella from Julian’s workbench.

The afternoon sky had gone gray above the oak trees along the driveway, and damp air drifted up off the garden beds.