She's Mine

Nicki Ridley transcribes depositions at two in the morning while her infant daughter sleeps beside the desk—which is how she first hears the whisper buried under the audio. Her husband is on the road five nights a week. The baby monitor keeps showing a shadow that shouldn't be in the frame. Bruises bloom on Nicki's skin overnight, in the shape of fingers. Something inside the little ranch house in Poole, Illinois has decided that Lottie belongs to it.