Chapter 2
Midnight draped the household in a heavy, suffocating silence, broken only by the soft, rhythmic hum of the hallway nightlight. Claire stood motionless in the doorway of Lily’s bedroom, her bare feet pressing soundlessly against the hardwood floor. Inside the dimly lit room, Lily lay fast asleep, her blonde curls splayed across the pastel pillow, one small arm tightly wrapped around the doll with the purple bow. The sight should have filled Claire with maternal warmth, but instead, a cold knot formed in her stomach. She crept forward like a ghost, her shadow stretching long and distorted across the nursery wall. Every breath Lily took was deep and even, signaling the profound exhaustion of a six-year-old celebrating a long birthday, yet Claire could not shake the feeling of vulnerability hanging in the air. She knelt beside the twin bed, her eyes straining against the gloom to examine the doll resting against her daughter's chest. In the muted light, the purple satin bow looked less like a playful accessory and more like a strange, identifying marker, a seal on a package intended for delivery. Claire reached out with trembling fingers, hovering just millimeters above the coarse fabric, debating whether to pull the toy away and risk waking the child. The silence of the house seemed to press in from all sides, amplifying the racing sound of her own heartbeat. David had gone to sleep hours ago, dismissing her anxieties as late-night paranoia born of sibling rivalry and postpartum exhaustion. But Claire knew her sister’s mind; Allison did not do anything without a precise, often unsettling purpose. As a sudden gust of wind rattled the windowpane outside, Lily stirred, murmuring softly in her sleep and tightening her grip on the doll. Claire withdrew her hand instantly, defeated by her daughter's protective embrace, realizing she would have to wait for daylight to uncover the truth hidden beneath the cotton seams.
