Alle Kapitel von The Barren Wife's Revenge : Kapitel 81 – Kapitel 90

Adrian confirmed at 7:12 a.m. He didn't wait for four o'clock.The location text had come in at 6:58. A time, a gravel turnout on County Road 9, a black sedan. He typed Yes and sent it before he could read it twice.Nora watched him do it from the counter. She didn't say anything. She lifted Hope out of the carrier and took her to the chair by the window to feed her.Rachel came into the kitchen at eight, her hair flat on one side. She looked at Nora, then at him."Who died?""Nobody," Nora said. "Adrian's going to the city tonight. Twelve hours.""Lore's idea.""Yes," Adrian said.Rachel took a mug down and stopped. "Am I allowed in this kitchen alone?""No," Nora said."Good thing you're both here." She poured the coffee anyway and sat.Nora spent the morning on the house. She tested the front lock, then the back. She showed Rachel which window faced the drive and which one didn't open. She walked the hall twice with her phone in her hand. At noon she refolded the same receiving bla

Nora dragged the chair away from the front window with Hope still on her arm. The legs scraped the floor. She set it against the hall wall, out of line with the glass, and sat. Hope kept feeding.Rachel stood by the couch with the second phone at her ear. "Say that again. Slower."Nora's phone buzzed on her knee. Clear. She typed Here and sent it. Eleven seconds, and she was angry at herself for counting.Rachel lowered the phone. "He was on the east edge at five past seven. Saw nothing. Road was empty.""And twice since.""Twice since.""That tower covers eleven miles." Nora kept her voice low for Hope. "Whoever it was didn't need to be close.""Or they did."Nora watched the front window from the side. Black glass. The lamp in it."Adrian told Lore I knew the turnout," Rachel said."Did you?""I knew a county road. He never said which one. I never saw that text. Take my phone and look.""Keep it.""You didn't tell me either.""I didn't tell anyone.""So it's six people. And you're o

Adrian's phone buzzed against his thigh at 9:26. He tilted the screen away from the driver and read it.A man brought an envelope from Samuel. It says to call a number only when you're standing next to him. Samuel knew you were coming. Who told him?He read it twice. The sedan held seventy. Dark fields ran along both sides of the road."Everything all right?" the driver said."Nora. Checking in.""She should."The driver kept both hands on the wheel. His phone sat in the dash mount, screen black. He hadn't touched it since the county road. He hadn't turned on the radio in two hours and twenty minutes.Adrian deleted three tries. He sent the fourth.I told no one. Only you. Do you want me back?He could still feel where Hope's head had rested in the crook of his arm at 6:40. He counted. Nine seconds.No.Another came before he could type. Did anyone tell Samuel you were coming?He looked at the road. Samuel was always going to know. That was the plan Lore laid out in the driveway. You

The bars dropped to one, then none, as the sedan came down the ramp.Adrian's thumb was still over the send arrow. The pin had gone out. He didn't know if it had landed.The driver took the stop sign at a crawl and turned onto a two-lane road with no center line. The dash clock read 10:16."Where are we going?""Short way.""I didn't ask for one.""Road's closed ahead. Wreck past the bridge." The driver kept his eyes forward. "Twenty minutes sitting in it.""Who told you?""I got a text.""The one with no name."The driver's hands shifted on the wheel. "That's the one."Adrian checked his phone. Nothing. He turned the screen face down on his knee.Grain silos went by, then a feed store with its windows dark. The driver slowed, put the signal on for nobody, and pulled into the gravel behind the building. One lamp on a pole lit half the lot. A car sat at the far end, nose out, no lights.The driver stopped and cut the engine."Start it," Adrian said."Not yet.""Start it.""The text sai

Nora's phone lit at 10:36. Three texts landed at once, one on top of the other.The first was stamped 10:17.Out of the car. Samuel is here. Alone.She read it standing in the dark kitchen, Hope's weight on her shoulder, the phone the only light. Nineteen minutes. The pin on her map had frozen at 10:19, and she had watched it not move for seventeen minutes. Twice the contact had checked in. Clear. Clear. She had answered both with her thumb and typed nothing to Adrian, because she had told him no at 9:28 and she would not be the one who chased.Rachel looked up from the table. "That him?""It's late.""How late?""He wrote it at 10:17."Rachel said nothing. Nora scrolled to the second.Tracker in Samuel's bag. Cut into the lining. Sent the bag off in the sedan as a decoy. Samuel's with me.The third was stamped 10:35.I'm driving. His car. I know what I promised. I couldn't ask you.She read the third one twice. Hope's sock had come off again and hung from her toes. Nora left it.The