A muffled voice caught her attention. Curious, she strolled toward Jake’s half-open door.

Jake was talking to someone, but there was no answer. “Don’t think anything of it. Mom says she’s our friend.” Jake was silent as if listening for an answer.

“Mm-hmm, I also don’t get why she’s nice one moment and then mad all of a sudden. And how she looks when she’s angry…”

Was Jake talking about her?

“Don’t tell anybody, but sometimes I’m very scared of her.”

Her hands balled into fists. When her fingers hurt, she forced her hands to relax. No, he couldn’t be talking about her. Who was he talking to anyway? Hesitantly, she looked into the room. Ah, his teddy.

“You know what?” Jake asked. “I’ll just draw Madison a picture. Maybe she’ll like me better then.”

Madison’s eyes burned. Maybe she’d gotten some dust in them or something like that. Blinking, she spun and headed toward her bedroom. She wanted to be alone.

Next chance she got, she would talk to Sherry so that she could convince Jake not to draw something for her. She didn’t want to be like Grandmother Eileen, who had ripped her drawings apart when she had been a kid. In the end, the papers would just lie around and remind Madison how uncomfortable Jake felt in her presence.

When she walked past the kitchen, she saw Sherry and Rita Mae standing there chatting.

As if feeling Madison’s gaze on her, Sherry turned. Her expression was strange before she hurried toward Madison, stopped in front of her, and opened her mouth. But instead of speaking, she just looked at her.

“Anything wrong?”

Slowly, Sherry shook her head.

“Well then…I’m going to my room.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sherry nodding.

Sherry was behaving really weirdly today. Had something happened? Don’t think about it. It’s none of your business.

“Dinner will be served in about thirty minutes,” Rita Mae called after her.

Without answering, Madison marched to her bedroom.

Sherry followed Madison’s every movement when she sat down at the dinner table.

“Enjoy your meal,” Rita Mae said, and Sherry and Jake mumbled a “Thanks, you too.”

“Yeah, enjoy your meal.” Madison put some vegetables and mashed potatoes and a piece of steak onto her plate, totally focused on her task, as if nothing else existed.

When Rita Mae frowned at Sherry, she shrugged. What was up with Madison this evening?

Jake piled as much food onto his plate as would fit.

When Sherry saw this, she stopped his attempt to haul even more mashed potatoes onto his plate. “You have enough, don’t you think?”

“Aw, but Mom, I’m hungry.”

Rita Mae tsked at him. “Anyone would think we were letting you starve here.”