My Husband Hung Up on Me the Night I Gave Birth novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: Cast Iron

Erin's POV

At five o'clock my mother was frying onions in her black cast-iron skillet, and the house phone rang on the wall.

"Salesman," she said, and kept stirring.

It rang a long time, and then it stopped.

My watch had died at four, so I had put it on the charger by the toaster, next to her cell phone.

I sat at the kitchen table with Bean asleep in the laundry basket Mama had lined with towels.

I was watching her breathe when the back screen door creaked.

Mama didn't turn around. "Ryan, if that's you, wipe your feet."

A man's voice answered from the doorway. "Not Ryan."

I knew it before I looked.

The gray hoodie stood in my mother's back doorway, with the hood down this time. He was heavy and calm, and he had a black pistol held low against his leg.

"Hello, Mrs. Tierney," he said. "Ms. Dearing sends her regards."

I stood up so fast the chair fell over.

"Sit," he said. "Nobody gets hurt. I take the baby, I leave, and you go on with your week."

"You cut the phone line," I said.

"Outside box. Took a minute." He looked at the laundry basket. "That her?"

I stepped in front of it.

"You put me behind a fence," I said. "You took her out of my arms with my blood still on her."

"I did a job."

"You had a mother, too."

"Move, lady."

He raised the pistol an inch, and I didn't move.

I was thinking about one thing, which was that Mama had not said a word in a full minute.

She stood at the stove with her back to him and a long wooden spoon in her hand.

"Young man," she said. "Are you hungry?"

He frowned. "What?"

"You came a long way. I've got onions going." She lifted the skillet off the burner by its handle. It was black and heavy and full of hot grease. "Would you like some?"

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