Chapter 1 - Inside the Teddy Bear
Vivian was already ripping open Lily’s dead mother’s teddy bear when she said the cruelest thing the fourteen-year-old had heard since the funeral.
“Your mother left nothing worth keeping.”
A tuft of white stuffing drifted onto the bed.
Lily stood frozen on the other side, one hand reaching toward the old tan bear with its faded red ribbon.
“Stop.”
Vivian pulled harder.
The seam beneath the bear’s left arm split another inch.
Months after Anna Bennett’s death, the bear was one of the few objects Lily still touched every night.
Anna had owned it since childhood.
When Lily was six, her mother had replaced one of its button eyes.
When Lily was ten, they had sewn the red ribbon on together.
Three days before Anna’s final hospitalization, she had placed it in Lily’s arms.
“Keep him safe for me.”
Lily had.
Until now.
“She left me,” Lily said.
Vivian looked at her.
For one heartbeat, something almost human passed through the older woman’s expression.
Then she smiled.
“Exactly.”
One word.
Lily felt something inside her go cold.
Vivian dropped the damaged bear onto the blanket as though it were garbage.
Lily moved instantly.
“Get out.”
“This room is part of my house.”
“It was Mom’s house first.”
Vivian’s face tightened.
Lily reached for the bear.
Stuffing clung to her fingers.
Then she felt something hard beneath the torn seam.
She stopped.
Vivian stopped too.
Their eyes met.
Lily slowly reached inside.
Her fingertips closed around a small black object.
Not a button.
Not a battery.
A recorder.
It was barely longer than her thumb.
Lily pulled it free.
Vivian’s face changed.
“What’s this?”
No answer.
That frightened Lily more than the insult.
The recorder had one playback button.
Lily pressed it.
Static crackled.
Then a voice filled the bedroom.
Weak.
Breathless.
Unmistakable.
Anna.
“Vivian… what did you give me?”
Lily stopped breathing.
Vivian lunged across the bed.
“Give me that.”
Lily jerked backward.
“Why?”
“It’s private.”
“It’s my mother!”
“Lily.”
Vivian came around the bed.
“Hand it over.”
Lily pressed the recorder against her chest.
On the tiny speaker, another voice emerged.
Vivian’s.
“It was just something to help you sleep.”
Anna answered.
“You said it was vitamins.”
“Anna, you’re confused.”
“No.”
A shaky breath.
“You switched them.”
Vivian’s real face had gone almost gray.
“Turn it off.”
Lily backed toward the door.
“What did you give her?”
“Nothing that matters.”
“Then why are you scared?”
“I am not scared.”
“You ripped open her bear.”
“Because you’ve turned this room into a shrine!”
The recording continued.
Anna’s voice came again.
“You’ve been telling David I’m confused for months.”
Lily’s hand tightened.
David.
Her father.
Vivian moved again.
This time Lily ran.
She reached the hallway before Vivian grabbed the back of her sweater.
“Give it to me!”
“Dad!”
Lily screamed with everything in her.
“Dad!”
A door opened downstairs.
Footsteps thundered up the staircase.
Vivian released her.
David Bennett appeared at the end of the hall, his reading glasses still in one hand.
“What happened?”
Lily ran toward him.
“Don’t let her take this.”
Vivian followed.
“She’s hysterical.”
“No!”
Lily held up the recorder.
“She was ripping Mom’s bear apart.”
David looked past her.
He saw stuffing scattered across Lily’s bed.
The torn teddy bear.
Then he looked at Vivian.
“What were you doing?”
Vivian folded her arms.
“I was clearing damaged things out of the room. Lily became aggressive.”
“You ripped it.”
“It was already falling apart.”
“You liar!”
“Lily.”
David’s voice was sharp.
She froze.
That tone.
The same tone he had used since Anna died whenever Lily’s grief became inconvenient to the adults around her.
Lily’s eyes filled.
“You don’t believe me either.”
David’s expression changed.
“I didn’t say that.”
“You always say my name like that first.”
Vivian stepped closer to him.
“She found some old recording Anna made while she was sick. You know how confused she was near the end.”
Lily pressed playback again.
Anna’s voice filled the hallway.
“You said it was vitamins.”
Then Vivian’s recorded reply:
“It was something to help you sleep.”
David went still.
Vivian said quickly, “Anna was taking six medications. She constantly forgot what she’d taken.”
The recording continued.
Anna’s breathing sounded wrong.
“Why can’t I feel my hands?”
David’s face changed.
Lily looked at him.
“What did she give Mom?”
Vivian reached for the recorder.
David caught her wrist.
“No.”
It was the first time Lily had ever seen him physically stop Vivian.
“Let go of me.”
“Not until I hear this.”
Vivian stared at him.
“You cannot possibly think—”
“Be quiet.”
The words shocked all three of them.
David released her wrist but moved between Vivian and Lily.
The recorder crackled.
Anna whispered:
“I have a meeting tomorrow.”
Vivian answered:
“You’re not going anywhere tomorrow.”
A long pause.
Then Anna:
“You took the Meridian records.”
Vivian did not answer.
Anna’s voice became clearer despite her weakness.
“If you think making me sick will make this disappear, you’re wrong.”
Lily looked at her father.
“What are Meridian records?”
David did not answer.
But he recognized the name.
Lily saw that instantly.
Vivian saw it too.
The recorder continued.
A chair scraped.
Anna breathed rapidly.
Then she said something so softly Lily almost missed it.
“If Lily ever hears this…”
Static swallowed several words.
Then:
“…believe her before you believe me.”
David’s face crumpled.
“What?”
The recording jumped.
Anna’s voice returned one last time.
“If anything happens to me, don’t let Vivian tell David I was confused.”
The file ended.
Silence filled the hallway.
David turned very slowly toward his wife.
Vivian’s eyes were no longer frightened.
They were calculating.
“Anna was paranoid.”
David said nothing.
“She was dying.”
“She wasn’t dying that night.”
Vivian blinked.
Lily stared at him.
David’s voice dropped.
“That recording was made four days before she collapsed.”
Vivian looked toward the stairs.
David noticed.
“Where are you going?”
“To call my attorney.”
“You need an attorney?”
“For protection from whatever fantasy you two are about to build.”
Lily stepped closer to her father.
Vivian looked at the torn bear on the bed.
Then at the recorder in Lily’s hand.
And Lily suddenly understood something.
Vivian had not found the recorder by accident.
She had been looking for it.
“Dad.”
David looked down.
“She knew.”
“What?”
“She knew something was inside the bear.”
Vivian stopped walking.
Lily pointed toward the bedroom.
“She wasn’t throwing it away.”
Her voice stopped trembling.
“She was searching it.”
For the first time, David looked at Vivian as though he had never seen her before.
May you like
And Vivian had no answer.
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