Page 125 of Symphony for Lies

Susan never left Ivy to roam outside alone.

A bad feeling settled in my gut as my gaze flickered to Susan’s front door.

Something wasn’t right.

I rang her doorbell.

No answer.

I rang again.

Nothing.

She was elderly; what if she had fallen? Biting my lip, I pulled out my phone and dialed the police.

“Hello, my name is Amelia Walker. I’m not sure if something is wrong, but my neighbor—”

A scream pierced the air.It came from my house.

Grandma!

I didn’t think. I just ran. The front door was unlocked.

“Grandma?”

She had collapsed on the living room floor, clutching her chest.

“Grandma!”

I dropped my phone and fell to my knees beside her. Her skin was pale, and her lips trembled. In her weak grip, she held a phone with an ongoing call.

A familiar voice echoed from the speaker. Spencer.

With shaky hands, I pressed the speaker button.“Spencer! My grandmother… she’s barely moving. She—”

“Amelia?”he asked urgently.

“What happened?” I gasped.

“I’m on my way. I’m calling an ambulance now.”

The line went dead.

My grandmother’s fingers weakly curled around mine just as a thin trickle of snot slid from her nose.

Shit. The cat hair.

Panic surged through my chest. I yanked off my sweater and threw it aside. Her allergy. Goddamn it.

“Grandma, stay with me,” I begged, trying to prop her up.

Sirens wailed in the distance, and after a few minutes that felt like an eternity, Paramedics rushed in through the open door.

“Careful,” one of them said as he gently took my grandmother from my arms, laying her onto a stretcher.

They asked me questions, but I couldn’t answer.

I sat frozen as they worked, unable to process anything.

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