Chapter 1 - THE FALL
At 10:17 on a Tuesday morning, seven-year-old Lila Mercer stood beside her desk and dropped six spelling worksheets without seeming to notice.
Ms. Valerie Kincaid noticed.
She noticed because Lila almost never dropped anything.
Lila was the kind of child who lined up her pencils before class and erased mistakes until the paper nearly tore. She hated being called on unexpectedly. She always raised two fingers instead of her whole hand when she needed the bathroom.
And lately, she had started watching the classroom clock as though something bad happened whenever it reached three.
“Lila?”
The little girl looked up.
Her face had gone pale beneath the bright fluorescent lights.
Then her knees folded.
Valerie moved before she had time to think.
She crossed the narrow space between two desks and caught Lila beneath the arms just before her head struck the edge of a chair.
Worksheets scattered across the floor.
Pencils rolled beneath desks.
Twenty-one second-graders went silent.
Lila grabbed Valerie’s blouse with one trembling fist.
“Dad said it wouldn’t hurt,” she whispered.
Valerie froze.
“But it does.”
“What hurts?”
Lila’s eyes filled immediately.
She did not answer.
Valerie lowered her carefully onto the classroom rug.
“Someone get the nurse. Right now.”
A boy named Mason shot toward the door.
Lila curled onto one side.
That was when Valerie saw it.
The pale-blue cardigan pulled strangely across Lila’s ribs.
There was something beneath it.
Something flat.
Hard.
Rectangular.
Valerie leaned closer.
Lila instantly clamped both arms across her chest.
“No.”
Her voice was sharper than Valerie had ever heard it.
“It’s okay,” Valerie said. “I’m not touching anything.”
“Please don’t.”
“Lila, what is it?”
The little girl shook her head so hard her ponytail came loose.
“He’ll get mad.”
The school nurse, Allison Reed, hurried through the doorway less than a minute later.
She dropped to her knees beside Lila.
“What happened?”
“She collapsed.”
Allison checked Lila’s face, breathing, and responsiveness without moving the cardigan.
Then she saw the bulge.
Her expression changed.
“Lila,” she said softly, “sweetheart, what’s underneath your sweater?”
Lila scooted backward.
“No.”
“No one’s angry with you.”
“He said nobody could see.”
Valerie felt something cold move through her stomach.
“Who said that?”
Lila stared at the floor.
Nobody in the classroom moved.
Finally, she whispered one word.
“Daddy.”
A strip of gray tape had begun peeling beneath the cardigan.
Before either adult could stop it, the fabric shifted.
A small black metal box slid halfway from underneath Lila’s shirt and hung against her side.
It had been taped around her torso.
Too tightly.
Lila grabbed Valerie’s wrist with both hands.
Her eyes went straight to the classroom door.
“He’s coming after school.”
Valerie covered Lila’s hands with hers.
“For what?”
May you like
Lila’s lips began trembling.
“To get it back.”
