Chapter 1 - THE CAKE UNDER HIS SHOES
Cody was already airborne when I understood.
His knees were bent.
Both sneakers pointed toward the center of William’s birthday cake.
Five candles burned beneath him.
My son had just closed his eyes to make a wish.
Then Cody landed.
The sound was wet and heavy.
Cake collapsed beneath his shoes.
White frosting shot across the tablecloth. One candle bounced onto the floor. Another rolled beneath a chair still burning.
William stepped backward.
His mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
Cody threw both arms into the air.
“Your wish has been trampled by me!”
Laughter burst from somewhere behind the gift table.
Not all the guests.
Enough.
Drew Howerin stood beside the presents holding her smartphone.
She began clapping slowly.
“Well, he certainly saved this tedious little gathering.”
My blood went hot.
“Get him off the table.”
Drew laughed.
“Relax, Maggie.”
Cody looked directly at his mother.
Then deliberately twisted one foot.
Frosting squeezed between the soles of his sneakers.
William’s cake had taken me three evenings to finish because he wanted the little blue baseball diamonds made from fondant himself.
He had helped place every one.
Now blue sugar stuck to Cody’s socks.
“Stop.”
Cody grinned.
Then stomped again.
I moved.
My foot struck the side support of the table.
Hard.
The folding leg jumped inward.
The tabletop pitched.
Cody screamed.
He fell sideways, struck the carpeted floor with his shoulder, and rolled near the sofa.
Drew’s laughter vanished.
“Cody!”
She rushed toward him.
The room erupted.
Someone shouted my name.
Someone else grabbed the candle from beneath the chair.
I stood frozen for one second.
I had wanted Cody off the cake.
I had also known he was standing on the table when I kicked it.
That mattered.
“Mom?”
William’s voice pulled me back.
He stared at the wreckage.
Cake.
Wax.
Frosting.
A bent cardboard baseball topper.
Then at Cody crying on the carpet.
Then at me.
His face collapsed.
“Mom… was my birthday really boring?”
I dropped to my knees.
“No, sweetheart.”
His eyes filled.
“Then why did they do that?”
I pulled him against me.
I did not have an answer fit for a five-year-old.
Behind us, Drew was yelling for ice.
Cody was sitting up.
Good.
He was hurt, but conscious.
My anger had frightened William too.
I could see it in the way he looked from me to the fallen table.
I held him tighter.
“No one gets to decide your birthday matters less because they wanted to be cruel.”
Drew spun toward me.
“He could have broken his neck!”
“You encouraged him.”
“He stepped on a cake. You attacked an eleven-year-old.”
That sentence hit because part of it was true.
I stood slowly.
William stayed behind my leg.
Drew raised her phone.
Still recording.
I looked directly at her.
Then smiled.
“Mommy will make them regret it soon.”
The room went quiet.
Drew’s eyes narrowed.
“You threatening my son?”
“No.”
“What exactly are you threatening?”
“Nothing.”
I took William’s hand.
“We’re leaving.”
As I passed Drew, her phone screen caught the light.
A red recording timer.
Twenty-three minutes.
My stomach tightened.
Cody had jumped less than three minutes earlier.
She had been recording long before the cake was destroyed.
At the doorway, I looked back.
Drew was checking the screen.
Not Cody.
The screen.
Then a message appeared across the top.
I saw only four words before it disappeared.
DID SHE TAKE BAIT?
Drew looked up.
May you like
Our eyes met.
For the first time that afternoon, she stopped smiling.
