The Eye Unseen Read Online Free Page A

mine.
     

 
     
     
     
Chapter 3
     
     
     
    Lucy
     
    My instructions became much more specific. Brandy called Mom’s notes an exercise in micromanagement, but I didn’t mind. The more direct her orders, the less doubt I had about my performance.
    I was handed a timeline. Mom also gave me a very detailed verbal explanation of her plans. From across the room, I could see Brandy mouth the word Cinderella.
    Mom must have seen a flicker of light cross my face as I tried not to laugh.
    “Pay attention!” She backhanded me.
    “Yes, Ma’am. I’m sorry.”
    “When you get task #5, you will find all of the materials you need in the pantry cabinet.”
    I scanned the list and discovered that Mom wanted me to bake and decorate Brandy’s birthday cake.
    Wow! I couldn’t believe she was turning eighteen. How had I forgotten?
    “No problem. Thank you.” I wanted Mom to know that I had this one covered. For a nanosecond I even felt a sense of camaraderie with her, but that passed the instant I looked at her face and saw the same rigid features that greeted me every day.
    “We’ll be home at the usual time.”
    With the addition of my exciting mission, time flew. The materials Mom purchased were fabulous: a pan shaped like a butterfly — Brandy’s favorite — and a cake-decorating kit to match.
    I got to work early on it. The cake hit the oven at nine o’clock sharp, allowing it ample time to cool and be ready to ice in the early afternoon.
    I had just started cleaning the black specks from the refrigerator seals when Mom came home for lunch.
    The second I heard the tires crunching gravel, my heart jumped. The car sounded just like Mom’s, but what if someone else came by? What if one of the church ladies was bringing a gift for Brandy? I couldn’t answer the door.
    I couldn’t even be seen. Everyone knew I had moved to France.
    I put my cleanser in the sink and scurried to the hall closet. Claustrophobia entered alongside me, clutching my legs like a small child wanting to play. I batted the fear away, but it bit in deeper. Shutting the closet door opened up too many memories of my time in the shed. I almost started screaming. When a coat sleeve touched my arm, I jumped, certain the devil himself had shown up, ready to ram his horns into my side.
    “What are you doing in here?” Mom yelled when she found me.
    “Hiding.” Relief flooded my body as I stepped out. “I didn’t know who was here. I didn’t….”
    She placed her high heel on the top of my foot and pressed down.
    “You didn’t what, Lucy? You didn’t want to get caught slacking?”
    “No, no, no…I didn’t know it was you. It could have been anyone….”
    Mom grasped my hair and pulled my head to the side, marching me into the kitchen.
    “I gave you a very specific list this morning, didn’t I?”
    Spittle hit my face as Mom dragged me toward the list sitting innocently on the counter.
    “Yes.”
    “Why didn’t you follow it?”
    She shoved me backward, into the table. My rear end hit the edge and almost toppled the heavy oak.
    “I did. I am. Right now I’m on the seals….”
    “I don’t care what you’re doing right now . Right now all you’re doing is sniveling. Right now you’re trying to figure out how you can get out of trouble. Right now you’re annoying the crap out of me. But right now you’re not doing what I told you to do.”
    I stared at her, blankly. What rationality she had drained from her face with every word. I couldn’t fathom what she wanted from me.
    “You weren’t supposed to bake that cake until this afternoon, were you?”
    When the pounding began I lost sense of time. She hit my ear viciously, and the explosion that followed muddled my vision. Constant action flipped into slow-mo for me, the battering a clumsy waltz in which Mom spun me to and fro and I kept tripping over my own feet. The second time I bounced against the table, it spun and landed on top of me, protecting my torso from Mom’s