The Perfect Child(70)

“Janie! Come here.”

“What, Daddy?” she asked.

I crouched down in front of her. “I found Mommy’s phone in your bed. I thought you said you didn’t take it from her.”

“I didn’t take it. Mommy put it there.”

Hannah had been so spacey that she could’ve easily put it there and forgotten about it. She’d left the stove burners on twice last week.

“And you’re sure you didn’t take it?”

She nodded.

I walked into our bedroom. Hannah was on all fours peering underneath the bed.

“You can get up,” I said. “I found your phone.”

She leaped up and snatched it from me. “Where was it?”

“I found it underneath the couch cushions in the family room.”

“But I took out all the cushions twice and never found it.”

I shrugged. “I guess you just overlooked it.”





FORTY-TWO

HANNAH BAUER

I stormed into Janie’s room and towered over her with my hands on my hips. “Where did you hide Cole’s blanket?”

Her hoarding was out of control. She’d always stashed stuff in her bedroom, but now she was making it personal. In the last week, she’d stolen my favorite coffee mug—the one I used every morning that said I LOVE CHOCOLATE. I’d found it in her tub of Legos. She took my T-shirts and stuffed them in her drawers, buried underneath her clothes. I didn’t usually confront her about it because she’d only lie, but I didn’t have a choice this time. It was Cole’s blanket that he rubbed against his cheek to soothe himself. He couldn’t fall asleep without it.

Janie ignored me and kept working on her puzzle. She’d been busy with it most of the morning.

I tapped her on her shoulder. “I asked you a question. Where did you hide Cole’s blanket?”

“I didn’t do it.” She turned her body so her back faced me. Some days I fought her, but I didn’t have the energy today.

I checked underneath her bed first since it was her most used hiding space. At least she wasn’t very creative about her hiding places, but there wasn’t anything under her bed except cookie wrappers and empty toilet paper rolls. I stood and rifled through her sheets and comforter. It wasn’t there either. I scanned the room, hoping I wouldn’t have to go through every toy bin like before, and that’s when I spotted the yellow tuft of his blanket poking out of her garbage can. I stormed over and snatched it out.

I flung the blanket in front of her face. “How did this get in your garbage can?”

“I don’t know,” she said. She looked up at me, doe eyed, and smiled all innocent and sweet, but I didn’t believe her for a second.

“We’re going to give Blue back if you don’t start behaving.” My patience had run out. I’d use Blue if I had to. She’d left me no choice.

She shrugged. “So?”

“No more taking my stuff and hiding it in your room either. Or Cole’s. You leave our stuff alone. And you are going to stop having accidents in your pants, or else Blue’s gone.” I figured I might as well add things on since I was delivering the ultimate threat. “Do you understand me?”

She looked at me with no expression on her face. I stared back at her, a blunt refusal to look away first, like a dog establishing dominance. Cole’s fussing in the other room broke our stare-down.

I shook my finger at her. “I mean it,” I said before marching away to tend to Cole.

I fed him and fixed our lunch afterward, reheating the spaghetti from last night and cutting up fruit to go with it. Sometimes I missed the days when my life wasn’t centered on food.

“Janie, it’s lunchtime. Come eat.”

She skipped into the kitchen with a big grin on her face and took a seat at the table, our spat forgotten that quickly. She wolfed down her food while I barely touched mine. I hadn’t had an appetite in weeks. The thought of food made my stomach churn.

“I want to show you something,” she said after she finished her plate. She walked over to my chair and grabbed my hand. She led me into the bedroom and pointed to the spot on her floor next to her rainbow-colored toy bins. Blue lay there motionless, her paws sticking straight out. Her head was cocked to the side at a funny angle. Alarm bells went off inside me.

“I don’t care about her,” Janie said.

I knelt down next to Blue and turned her head. Her eyes bulged out of the sockets. Blood leaked from her nose. Her chest wasn’t moving. There was no air. No movement. No life. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. I slowly turned to look at Janie. Time stilled.

She smiled down at me with the same grin she’d worn when she’d come out of the bedroom. “She’s dead.”

Blood pooled in my insides. My stomach heaved. Jumping up, I pushed her out of the way. I ran down the hallway and barely made it to the toilet in time, where I heaved again and again.

Cole.

I leaped up and ran to the living room, where I’d left him napping in his swing. Janie stood next to the swing, staring down at him.

“Get away from him!” I screamed as I ran over to them. I grabbed her by the arm and pulled her away. “Don’t you ever go near him! Ever!” I shook her, flinging her small body back and forth. “Do you hear me? Don’t you touch him! Don’t you even look at him!”