But three weeks later, everything changed.
My mother stopped calling me.
Whenever I visited, Daniel insisted on staying in the room.
And whenever I asked if she was all right, she glanced nervously toward him before answering.
The call ended.
I drove to her house immediately.
When Daniel opened the door, he was wearing gloves.
“What happened?” I demanded.c
“Nothing, Mom. Grandma’s sleeping.”
But behind him, I could see a small black bag on the kitchen counter.
And something else.
An envelope bearing my mother’s name, with a handwritten warning:
DO NOT LET MARGARET SEE THIS.
The following afternoon, I secretly placed a motion-activated camera in the hallway, facing my mother’s bedroom door.