Chapter 1 - The Cry Behind the Rain“Grandma, please! I don’t want to sleep here!”
Ethan’s sneakers slid across the mud as Margaret shoved him through the wooden kennel gate.
Rain hammered the roof above them.
The twelve-year-old stumbled once, caught himself, and turned.
His face was pale from the fever he had only recently recovered from.
His wet dark hair stuck to his forehead.
Behind him stood five large farm dogs.
They should have frightened him.
Instead, what frightened him most was how thin they were.
Ribs.
Sharp hips.
Hollow stomachs.
The dogs remained beneath the covered section of the kennel, exhausted and silent.
Margaret stayed outside.
She grabbed the wooden gate.
“Grandma—”
The gate slammed.
The exterior latch dropped into place.
Ethan grabbed the bars.
“Please!”
Margaret stared at him through the rain.
There was no anger left on her face now.
That would have been easier.
Only coldness.
“Tonight, you’re sleeping in there with them.”
Ethan’s lower lip trembled.
“I’m still sick.”
“You were well enough to snoop through my desk.”
“I wasn’t snooping.”
“You opened something that didn’t belong to you.”
“I was looking for the thermometer.”
“And then you decided to ask questions.”
Ethan looked toward the farmhouse.
“My dad’s going to know.”
For the first time, Margaret’s eyes changed.
Only slightly.
Then her phone rang.
She looked at the screen.
DANIEL.
Ethan’s father.
Margaret immediately stepped several feet away from the kennel.
Her shoulders softened.
The cruelty disappeared from her face so quickly Ethan almost wondered whether he had imagined it.
She answered.
“Hello, sweetheart.”
Hundreds of miles away, Daniel sat alone in a hotel room after a long day of meetings.
“Mom, is Ethan feeling better?”
Margaret glanced back at the kennel.
Ethan gripped the gate harder.
“He’s perfectly fine.”
Daniel smiled weakly.
“That’s good.”
“He’s outside playing.”
Ethan’s eyes widened.
Rainwater streamed through his hair.
“Dad!”
Margaret turned slightly away.
Daniel’s expression changed.
“What was that?”
“Nothing. The television.”
Ethan tried again.
“Dad!”
Margaret moved farther from the kennel.
Rain battered the phone microphone.
Daniel heard only a broken sound beneath it.
A child crying.
Or maybe the wind.
He was exhausted.
He had been awake since five.
Margaret spoke warmly.
“You worry too much. Finish your trip.”
Daniel rubbed his eyes.
“Okay, Mom. Talk later.”
The call ended.
Margaret slowly lowered the phone.
Then she turned toward Ethan.
For several seconds they stared at each other through the wooden gate.
“You see?” she said.
“He trusts me.”
She walked toward the farmhouse.
Ethan remained behind the bars.
One of the dogs shifted several feet away.
A brown-and-white animal lowered itself painfully onto the muddy ground.
Ethan looked at its ribs.
Then toward the house.
His father had not heard him.
Or so Ethan believed.
Inside the hotel room, Daniel had placed his phone on the bedside table.
He crossed toward the bathroom.
Stopped.
Something bothered him.
He replayed the final seconds of the conversation in his mind.
Rain.
His mother’s voice.
And underneath it—
a cry.
Daniel slowly turned toward the phone.
His brow tightened.
“That was Ethan…”
May you like
He grabbed the phone again.
And this time, the fear arrived before he even unlocked the screen.
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