The Morning Sophie Slapped the Toast From His Hand

CHAPTER 1 - THE TOAST ON THE FLOOR

The toast hit the floor before Daniel understood what had happened.

One second, he was lifting it to his mouth.

The next, Sophie's small hand smacked his wrist, and the toast flew from his fingers.

"Sophie, Why would you do that?"

His voice came out sharper than he meant it to. Sophie flinched, but she didn't run. She stood beside the breakfast table in her pale cardigan, breathing hard, her eyes too wide for such a little face.

Sunlight poured through the big dining room windows. Coffee steamed beside his elbow. Orange juice glowed in the glass. Everything looked ordinary.

It didn't feel ordinary anymore.

Sophie pointed at the toast on the floor.

"She put something on it every day."

Daniel's hand loosened on the wheelchair arm.

"What?"

Sophie glanced toward the dining room doorway, then back at him. Her fingers twisted in the hem of her sweater. Then she looked down at his feet resting on the metal footplates of the wheelchair.

"She said it would keep you from walking."

For a moment Daniel forgot to breathe.

He followed her gaze to his own legs. Legs that hadn't held his weight in three years. Legs every doctor had called damaged beyond repair after the highway accident.

"You mean... I can walk?"

Sophie's nod was small, but certain.

"Yes. The accident was fake."

Daniel looked at the toast on the floor. Then at the doorway.

A shadow moved there.

Not a stranger.

It was Melissa, his wife, still in her silk robe, one hand gripping the frame hard enough to whiten her knuckles.

And instead of looking confused, she looked caught.

"Sophie, go to your room," Melissa said, her voice already trembling.

Daniel had not asked a single question yet.

But suddenly, he knew his daughter believed every word she had said.