David rounded on her. “What are you going to do about it? You’ll let me do anything. And you know why.” He smiled evilly. “Where is Bay? I saw her here. Come out, kitten. Daddy’s here. Come give Daddy a hug.”

“Stay where you are, Bay!” Sydney yelled.

“Don’t you ever undermine my authority in front of our daughter!” David advanced on her, but then an apple rolled to a stop at his feet. He looked over to the apple tree bathed in shadows. “Is my little Bay behind the apple tree? Does she want Daddy to eat an apple?”

Sydney, Claire, and Evanelle all watched, afraid to move, as David picked up the apple.

Tyler started to move, to take advantage of David being distracted, but Claire caught his arm and whispered, “No, wait.”

David brought the perfectly round pink apple to his lips. The juicy crack of him biting into it echoed throughout the garden, and the flowers twitched and shrank as if in fright.

He chewed for a moment, then he went unnaturally still.

His eyes darted back and forth, like he was watching something only he could see, a movie projected only for him. He dropped the apple and the gun at the same time.

He blinked a few times and looked at Sydney. He then turned and met the eye of everyone in the garden. “What was that?” he said, his voice trembling. When no one answered, he yelled, “What in the hell was that?”

Sydney looked down at the photographs of her mother, scattered around the grass at her feet. She felt a strange sense of calm come over her. She could remember clearly when David found her in Boise, when he beat her with such force in the back of his car. At one point, she knew she was going to die. As his fists came down, she was positive she was watching him kill her. It had been such a surprise to wake up, to find him on top of her. It might have been a surprise to him too. The death of someone else meant nothing to him, after all. But what he just saw meant something. It meant a lot to him.

“You just saw your death, didn’t you?” she said. “Was it your biggest fear coming true, David? Was someone actually hurting you this time?”

David went white.