Chapter 62

The day had been quiet. Too quiet. The kind of silence that is not peaceful but more like a warning, like the air being locked breathless before a storm. I tried to anchor myself in the ordinary, Lee's crayons on the living room floor, her tiny hands struggling to stay inside the lines of her picture. Sami’s voice traveled down the hallway, a happy, high pitched giggle that should have eased me. These were the sounds of normal life but nothing inside me felt safe. My mind was restless, pacing in circles, waiting for the next thing to drop.

It came in the middle of the afternoon.

My phone rang on the coffee table. I didn't think anything of it initially, maybe a call from Adam who had stepped out for tea, maybe something trivial and meaningless. But when I reached for it, the message on the screen left me breathless.

You can't keep her away from me forever. She needs to know the truth.

I blinked. My hands trembled so violently the phone almost slipped from my fingers. My lungs felt thi