《The Man Who Was Supposed To Die》全部章節：第 31 章 - 第 35 章

The morning after I called him I woke up and immediately wanted to call him back and say never mind.I did not do that.I made breakfast instead. Porridge for Eli, who ate whatever was put in front of him without complaint. Toast with the crusts cut off for Clara, who had strong opinions about crusts that I had stopped arguing about six months ago.I stood at the stove and watched the pot and thought about what I was going to say to them.Not how. When.I had been putting the when off since I hung up the phone last night.Clara solved the problem for me.She came into the kitchen, looked at my face the way she always did, and said, "You need to tell us something."I turned around.Both of them were at the table. Eli with his hands folded in front of him. Clara with her chin on her fist. Both looking at me like they had been expecting this conversation for a while and were ready to have it."Your father is going to come and visit," I said.Clara sat up straight.Eli did not move."When

I told Damien I would think about it.That was Wednesday.By Thursday I had almost talked myself into going. Halcrest was four hours away. June could watch the children for two days. The hearing was important and Damien was right that my testimony was the strongest counter argument to the entrapment claim.I even looked up train times.Thursday night Eli went to bed early, which was unusual because Eli never went to bed early. He was the child who stayed awake reading until I came in and turned the light off, not the child who asked to go to bed at seven thirty.I put my hand on his forehead when I tucked him in.He was warm.Not concerning warm. Children ran warm sometimes. I told myself that and went back to the kitchen and looked at the train times again.At two in the morning he appeared in my doorway.He did not say anything. He just stood there in his pyjamas with his eyes half closed and his cheeks very red and I sat up and looked at him and knew immediately.I took his tempera

I sat very still.The phone was against my ear and Roland's voice was in it and outside the window Maren was doing its usual grey indifferent thing and somewhere down the hall Clara was telling Eli about the ruling at full volume."How did you get this number?" I said."You would be surprised what is available to a man with the right resources," Roland said. "Even from a detention facility. Even with a trial coming. Resources have a way of continuing to function regardless of personal circumstances."Same voice. Same warm reasonable tone. The one I had grown up trusting.My hand tightened on the phone."What do you want?" I said."I want you to think," Roland said. "You are about to let Damien Voss back into your life and into your children's lives. I want you to consider what that means.""I have considered it.""I do not think you have considered all of it," he said. "Damien Voss is not a safe man, Sera. He has enemies. Real ones. Not just me. People who have been waiting a long tim