Chapter 3 - The Innocence Shattered
Sitting on the ruined lawn, surrounded by a circle of indifferent onlookers, Maya held her shivering child. Chloe’s frantic breathing slowly began to steady, though her tiny body continued to shake with violent, rhythmic tremors. The pink tulle dress was a heavy, blackened rag, weighted down by the foul-smelling earth.
Maya cupped Chloe’s muddy face, forcing the toddler to look into her eyes. "Chloe, sweetie, look at Mommy. Tell Mommy what happened. Did you slip? Did someone put you up there?"
The toddler hiccuped, a stream of dark, muddy water dripping from her nose as she wiped her eyes with a filthy, tiny fist. She looked around at the circle of silent, watching faces, her bright green eyes swimming in fresh, terrified tears.
"Grandma..." Chloe whispered, her tiny voice trembling so softly that Maya had to lean her ear inches from the child’s mouth to hear it. "Grandma said... Grandma said I'm not a good child."
Maya’s entire body went rigid. The blood in her veins felt as though it had instantly turned to liquid ice. "What did you say?"
"Grandma tied the strings to my wrist," Chloe sobbed, burying her face into the crook of Maya’s neck, her small frame quivering against her mother’s chest. "She said... she said I need to be punished because I don't belong in the big house. She said if I floated away... nobody would care."
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The air around Maya seemed to vanish. The ambient sounds of the string quartet, the rustling leaves, and the distant ocean waves muted into a deafening, throbbing ringing in her ears. She lifted her head slowly, her vision narrowing into a pinprick of dark, furious focus. She looked up past the sea of whispering guests toward the top of the marble steps.
There, leaning against the polished stone balustrade, stood Victoria Vance.
