Chapter 21: One in the Morning

Stewart's POV

At one in the morning I sat at the Cassidys' kitchen table with a cold cup of tea.

It was the same chair I had sat in three years ago.

The trucker had brought us home in blankets that night.

I had waited in it for a phone call then.

Tonight I waited for one again.

Geneva and Giles had driven to Pittsburgh at six that evening.

Her scan was at nine in the morning, and the clinic wanted her in a hospital bed the night before.

Geneva's parents had gone to bed with the television on.

Junie slept upstairs in the daybed, with the purple mitten in her fist.

I had told Geneva I would hold the house.

I hadn't told her I would not sleep.

My phone lit up on the table.

The name on the screen was Beth's.

I let it ring four times.

Then I picked it up and said nothing.

"Stewart," she said.

Her voice was low and clear, and there was a motel television behind it.

"It's one in the morning."

"I know. I wanted to catch you alone."

"You're out on bail. You're not supposed to call this number."

"I'm not calling to see Junie. I'm calling to make you an offer."

I stood up and walked to the sink.

"I'll sign her over," Beth said. "All of it. The birth certificate, the custody, everything."

"Why would you do that?"

"I'll plead to the forgery and take whatever the county gives me. I only want one thing."

"What?"

"Tomorrow I speak at the stone. You tell the pastor I'm unwell, that I've been grieving, that I was out of my mind."