10 THE VISITOR
Samantha’s phone chimed an incoming message.
She paused from folding the shirt with the rainbow-colored unicorn on the front and instinctively flicked her eyes to the girls’ bedroom window. Seated on Julie’s bed—or was this the one Josie now slept in?—Samantha had a perfect view of the summer day outside. The large oak trees in the front yard dappled the morning sunlight over the grass. She leaned and peeked down from the window.
The twins were both still occupied in the sandbox.
From inside and at this height of the old farmhouse they looked impossibly small, impossibly vulnerable. They’d been outside for hours, staying busy in the sandbox and giving Samantha the break she so desperately needed.
Yeah, some break—vacuuming, dishes stacked to the ceiling, and now the une
