The Good Help

Nobody hurts Ava Chen.

That's the part she can't explain to anyone. Six months pregnant, first home - a house they got at a steal on a cul-de-sac where the lawns are cut on Saturdays and someone brings dinner the day you move in. Deena is waiting on the driveway before they reach the door, casserole in hand, already knowing their names.

And Ava loves it. That's the part she'll be ashamed of later - that she wanted exactly this. It's Marcus, who grew up trusting no one, who hangs back. So the street turns its warmth on him instead, one Wednesday dinner at a time, until he stops hanging back at all.

Then the kindness stops asking. Meals no one requested. Someone in the house while she sleeps. A wall of keys in Deena's kitchen - one for every house - that's only for emergencies, they explain. So gently.

It's only once Ava asks why the house has sold six times in six years, why nobody stays, that the warmth turns patient. Her husband thinks she's overwhelmed. Her doctor thinks she's anxious. The neighbors have been so understanding. Considering.

She has three months until her son arrives - just long enough to learn that once they've decided you're theirs, the way out was never a door.

The Good Help is a domestic horror novella about the terrifying cost of being cared for. Book 2 of the Rambling Rose series - new readers, start with The Good Neighbors.