Chapter 2: The Only Witness No One Expected
Rosa knelt beside her daughter.
"What is it, sweetheart?"
Lily looked toward the hallway before lowering her voice, as though the walls themselves might be listening.
"The pretty lady..."
She hugged the wooden block against her chest.
"She pushed Grandma."
Rosa felt every drop of blood leave her face.
"Lily."
Her voice came out sharper than she intended.
"That's a very serious thing to say."
The little girl nodded.
"I know."
Rosa searched her daughter's face for uncertainty.
There was none.
Children invented monsters.
They imagined dragons beneath beds and pirates behind curtains.
But Lily had never invented people.
"When did you see it?"
"I was sitting on the stairs."
"The little stairs?"
Lily nodded.
"The lady was smiling."
Rosa frowned.
"Smiling?"
"Grandma turned around."
Lily slowly raised one tiny hand.
"Then the lady did this."
She gently pushed her wooden block across the laundry table with two fingers.
Not hard.
Just enough.
Rosa closed her eyes.
She remembered something she had ignored the night before.
When the ambulance arrived, she had gone to collect the broken teacups from the foyer.
Margaret's cane hadn't been lying beside her.
It had been three steps above.
As if it had landed there after she was already falling.
A simple accident suddenly seemed impossible.
That afternoon, Nathaniel returned from the hospital carrying his mother's overnight bag.
He found Rosa waiting nervously near the service entrance.
"I need to tell you something, sir."
Her hands shook.
"I'm afraid you'll fire me."
Nathaniel looked at her carefully.
"I won't decide anything until I've heard it."
Rosa glanced down the hallway where Lily was coloring quietly at the kitchen table.
"My daughter saw what happened."
Nathaniel's expression remained unreadable.
"What did she see?"
Rosa swallowed.
"She says Miss Cole pushed your mother."
The words hung heavily between them.
Nathaniel looked past Rosa toward the little girl.
Three years old.
Too young to understand inheritance.
Too young to understand lies.
May you like
But perhaps...
Old enough to understand what she had seen.
