Chapter 4
Looking up from her phone, Chris eyed her mother warily. Maria hummed to herself as she flipped through an issue of Food Network magazine. They were seated in the living room. Maria was perched on the edge of a beige leather armchair, one which she frequently complained was the least comfortable seat in the house. Her eyes kept darting up towards the kitchen, even though there hadn’t been anyone in that room all morning.
Chris shrugged to herself and leaned back against the mountain of pillows that she’d nestled into at the end of the couch. The heatwave hadn’t broken yet, but Nick had persuaded Maria to turn down the thermostat, so the house temperature was more bearable these days. She attempted to refocus her attention on the book she had open on her phone’s reading app, but
