Betrayed: She Took My Son novel · Chapter 14 of 24

Chapter 14: The Barn

Philip slept on Dot's sofa that night, with his shoes on and his phone on his chest.

He had said he couldn't go back to the empty house, and nobody had argued.

Lacey's phone was still off. If she turned it on, he wanted to be the first to hear it.

Dot gave him a quilt and a plate of cold chicken and did not say one word to him.

I lay in my childhood bed in her spare room and listened to the farmhouse tick.

At midnight I heard tires on the gravel road.

They slowed at the gate.

I sat up. My mouth went dry, and every muscle I owned went tight at once.

I knew that sound. It was the sound of the van that brought the night staff to Larkmont.

The tires stopped.

I did not think.

I went out the back door in my socks and ran across the wet yard.

The barn had a light on.

Clayton was in the tack room doorway with his bad leg braced and a lantern in his fist.

"Somebody's at the gate," I said.

"I heard."

"They've come for me."

"Mel." He set the lantern down. "Listen."

The engine started again. The taillights slid along the fence and kept going, down the hill and out of sight.

It was only a neighbor's truck turning around.

I stood there shaking so hard my teeth clicked.

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