4338.206 · July 25, 2018 AD
27 Bettong Road
The manifest says three deliveries. The first address stops both sisters cold—it's family. Beatrix parks down the street. Gladys goes alone to the porch, stumbling, dropping parcels, pretending to be someone she's not. What waits there will empty her stomach and test her nerve. Meanwhile, Beatrix's phone lights up with a message that might mean everything or nothing. The secrets are multiplying faster than the lies.
One address. One delivery. How hard could it be?
But the first stop on the manifest isn't just any house—it's loaded with history, severed ties, and the kind of family tension that doesn't fade. Beatrix won't drive past. Too obvious. So Gladys goes alone, carrying a package and a disguise that barely holds.
What she encounters on that porch—the smell, the sounds, her own body's rebellion—will leave marks that won't wash off.
Back in the truck, Beatrix stares at her phone. A message. Urgent. From someone who might know too much or just enough. The words are vague, the timing suspicious, and the meeting is in hours.
New Norfolk fades in the rearview mirror. But the weight of that first stop? That stays with them.
