Chapter 1 - The Glass on the Floor.
.The hospital room was so bright that nothing inside it seemed capable of hiding a secret.
Cool fluorescent light washed over the white floor, the pale walls, and the motionless woman in the bed.
Olivia Cross had not opened her eyes in fourteen hours.
Her brother, Evan, had spent most of that time blaming himself for arriving too late.
He had left the hospital for forty minutes to meet a specialist downstairs.
When he returned, the double wooden doors to Olivia's room were almost closed.
Through the narrow opening, he saw Claire Bennett standing beside the bed in a crimson evening dress.
Claire had come directly from a charity gala, her brown hair pinned into a loose bun and one heel already scuffed from running through the hospital corridor.
She was holding a crystal glass filled with a dark red drink.
Olivia's hand lay still only inches from it.
Evan stopped in the doorway.
For one terrible second, his mind supplied an answer before he had asked a question.
Claire turned and saw him.
Her face changed immediately.
"Evan, wait."
He pushed through the doors.
"What are you doing?"
Claire stepped backward.
"It is not what it looks like."
The glass slipped from her fingers.
It hit the white floor and shattered.
Dark red liquid spread across the tile in a widening stain.
Evan looked from the broken glass to his unconscious sister.
His fear turned into anger so quickly that he did not recognize himself.
"I saw you standing over her."
Claire raised both hands.
"Then you saw the last five seconds of something you do not understand."
He crossed the room.
"Tell me what I am supposed to understand."
Claire glanced at Olivia, then toward the door, as if she expected someone else to enter.
"Not here."
That answer made everything worse.
Evan moved closer.
"You do not get to say that."
Claire tried to step around him.
He blocked her path.
"Evan, move."
"No."
"I am trying to protect her."
The words sounded impossible to him.
His control broke.
He struck her once across the cheek with an open hand.
The sound was sharp in the sterile room.
Claire turned from the impact and pressed her palm against her face.
Neither of them moved.
Evan's anger vanished almost as quickly as it had appeared.
What remained was shock at what he had just done.
Claire looked back at him, not crying, not shouting, only stunned.
"You just made this harder," she whispered.
Evan opened his mouth, but no answer came.
Then he noticed a small red reflection on the silver rail of Olivia's bed.
His eyes followed it upward.
A white dome security camera was mounted in the ceiling above them.
Its recording light was glowing.
Claire followed his gaze.
For the first time since he had entered the room, fear appeared clearly in her expression.
"Good," Evan said quietly.
"The camera will show me exactly what happened."
Claire lowered her hand from her cheek.
"If the camera still has the recording."
Evan stared at her.
"What does that mean?"
Claire looked at the broken glass on the floor.
May you like
Then she looked at Olivia.
"It means someone already tried to erase what happened before you came in."
