Chapter 2 - The Rabbit in Gracie’s Hand
The stuffed rabbit had one missing button eye.
Sawyer noticed it because Gracie kept rubbing the torn spot with her thumb.
She had done that when she was four and scared of thunder.
She had done that when she got stitches after falling from a playground swing.
She had done that when Carolina raised her voice too sharply and then said everyone was too sensitive.
Now she did it while clinging to him outside their own house.
Sawyer looked down at the rabbit.
Then at Gracie.
Then at the bruise above her pajama waistband.
His anger tried to turn wild.
He forced it still.
Gracie did not need rage right now.
She needed arms that did not shake.
Carolina pointed toward the SUV.
“You are not taking my daughter anywhere.”
Sawyer looked at her.
“Our daughter is hurt.”
“She fell.”
Gracie flinched.
Not at the word.
At Carolina’s voice.
Sawyer felt the movement through her whole body.
His eyes hardened.
“Then you should want a doctor to see her.”
Carolina’s mouth opened.
Closed.
Mrs. Kennedy remained by the iron gate, phone held against her chest now, face pale and horrified.
She looked like a woman who wished she had stepped in sooner and knew regret would not help the child in Sawyer’s arms.
Carolina turned toward the neighbor.
“You have no right to record my property.”
Sawyer’s voice cut through the driveway.
“She is not your property.”
Gracie’s grip tightened around his shirt.
The gray rabbit’s soft ears brushed his wrist.
Mrs. Kennedy swallowed.
“I didn’t know what else to do.”
Carolina laughed sharply.
A brittle, panicked sound.
“This old woman spies on us. That’s all this is.”
Sawyer looked at Mrs. Kennedy.
“What did you see?”
Carolina snapped, “Do not answer that.”
Mrs. Kennedy’s hand trembled around the phone.
She did not play the video.
She did not describe everything.
She only looked at Gracie and whispered, “Enough.”
The word landed harder than details.
Sawyer turned back to Carolina.
His face had gone colder now.
Not less angry.
More dangerous because it was controlled.
“I’m taking her to the hospital.”
Carolina stepped in front of the SUV door.
“No.”
Sawyer looked at her blocking the car.
Then at the phone in Mrs. Kennedy’s hand.
Then down at Gracie, whose tears had gone silent.
He spoke slowly.
May you like
“Move.”
Read Chapter 3 👉 Because Carolina tried to block the SUV, but the neighbor’s shaking phone had already changed the driveway into evidence.
