Chapter 5 - THE LOCK
Sunday stayed quiet until afternoon.
Margaret made soup.
Claire worked on her laptop.
They barely spoke.
At five, heavy rain began.
Claire went to the laundry room for towels.
When she returned, Margaret stood in the hallway.
“Daniel told me you want me gone.”
Claire stopped.
“He should have told you himself.”
“He did.”
Claire knew immediately that was a lie.
Daniel had texted twenty minutes earlier:
Still in Ohio. We’ll deal with Mom together tomorrow.
Claire closed the laptop.
“We can discuss it calmly.”
Margaret laughed.
“You’ve been planning this from the beginning.”
“No.”
“You wanted him away from me.”
“No.”
“You wanted my grandchild.”
Claire stared.
“Your grandchild is inside my body.”
Margaret’s face changed.
That sentence crossed whatever invisible line existed in her mind.
“You think that makes the baby yours?”
Claire’s stomach turned.
“Margaret.”
“My blood is in that child.”
“And?”
“And you do not get to cut me out.”
Claire stood.
“I’m calling Daniel.”
Margaret grabbed her phone from the coffee table first.
“Give me that.”
“You need to calm down.”
Claire reached.
Margaret backed away.
Then opened the rear door.
Rain blew inside.
“You need some space.”
Claire stared.
“What?”
“The shed.”
Claire almost laughed from disbelief.
“I am not going into a shed.”
Margaret moved toward her.
Claire stepped back.
The confrontation lasted less than a minute.
No prolonged struggle.
No dramatic fight.
Margaret used the one thing Claire did not expect.
She said:
“Your prenatal medication is out there.”
Claire froze.
“What?”
“The bottle you couldn’t find.”
Claire had been looking for one supplement since morning.
Margaret held up a small prescription bottle.
Then walked into the rain.
Claire followed instinctively.
“Give me that.”
Margaret moved toward the shed.
Claire reached the doorway.
Margaret tossed the bottle onto a shelf inside.
Claire stepped after it.
The door slammed.
The latch scraped.
Then the padlock clicked.
Claire spun.
“Margaret!”
Silence.
Claire hit the door.
“Open this!”
Margaret’s voice came through the wood.
“You are going to sit there until Daniel gets home and think about what happens when you try to break apart a family.”
Claire screamed.
Margaret walked away.
For the first fifteen minutes, Claire believed she would come back.
Then the lights inside the house went off.
The rain worsened.
And Claire noticed the tiny red light under the shelf.
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