Chapter 1

The two-story building on our street was the only thing my parents ever left me.

After we got married, my husband's brother, Frank Lewis, said he wanted to start a business, and my husband, David, talked me into lending him the storefront for a restaurant.

That was six years ago, and I never saw a dime for rent or utilities.

One day, my son Andy went to the restaurant after school to wait for me, and Frank's wife Linda accused him of stealing fifty dollars from the register.

She pinned my six-year-old to a table in front of a room full of customers and slapped him fifteen times.

By the time I got there, Andy's mouth was bleeding, and he was curled up in a corner, shaking. David stood two steps away. He had watched his own son get beaten from start to finish and never lifted a finger.

*****

The two-story building on our street was all my parents left me after they died in a car accident.

It had two storefronts on the ground floor and three bedrooms upstairs.

The second year of our marriage, Frank said he wanted to open a restaurant. David held my hand and told me, "We're all family. Let him use it for a while."

That "a while" turned into six years.

Six years, and they never paid a single cent in rent.

I covered the utilities and the HOA fees. Every holiday season, whenever they needed extra cash for inventory, David's mother, Melinda, would come around asking me to "help out a little."

That afternoon, I got stuck at work past five.

Nobody picked Andy up from school, so he walked to the restaurant by himself to wait for me.

I could see Linda through the glass door before I even reached the entrance. She had Andy pinned down on a table.

The sound was sharp enough to cut through the air, and I shoved the door open and rushed inside.

"Thief! Six years old and already stealing money!" Linda pressed one hand against the back of Andy's head while the other came down hard across his face again. "You little piece of trash. You're exactly like your worthless mother."

Andy was sprawled flat on the table with both small hands clamped over his face.

He had stopped crying altogether, and blood was smeared at the corner of his mouth. His whole face was so swollen it barely looked like his own.

Several other tables were occupied around us. Some customers kept their heads down and pretended not to notice, and others had their phones out, recording the whole thing.

Frank stood in the kitchen doorway with grease stains on his apron, not saying a word.

And David was leaning against the bar with a cigarette between his fingers. The ash had grown long and was about to fall. He watched his own son get hit like it had nothing to do with him.

"Linda, stop it!" I shoved her aside and scooped Andy into my arms.

His whole body was shaking against me, and he buried his face into my shoulder. His shirt was soaked through with sweat.

Blood smeared both corners of his mouth. The left side of his face was swollen purple, and I could see the handprints layered one on top of another.

Linda stumbled back from my push, but she caught herself and planted her hands on her hips.

He snarled, "What are you glaring at, Susan? Your son's got sticky fingers. He stole fifty bucks right out of my register. I was doing you a favor by teaching him a lesson!"

Andy trembled in my arms and choked out the words, "Mommy, I didn't take it."

A woman in glasses at the next table said, "The boy didn't take anything. I saw the whole thing. He was just standing there looking at it, and she came up and started hitting him."

Linda whipped around and glared at her. "Mind your own damn business! If he wasn't trying to steal, why'd he go near it?"

I looked at David.

He stubbed out his cigarette and strolled over. "Come on, let it go. Linda's got a short fuse, and she doesn't know her own strength. The kid didn't know any better, and Linda meant well."

Linda let out a cold laugh from behind him. "You hear that? Even your husband said so. You're the only one making a big deal out of this."

I didn't say a word.

I just held Andy tighter and walked out the door.

Linda's voice chased after me. "You still owe me fifty bucks! Don't think you can just walk away from that!"