No Shelter Left novel · Chapter 13 of 24
Chapter 13: What Kaitlyn Knew
Aisling did not step back.
She stood on the landing with her hand still in Kaitlyn's cold fingers and said, "How long?"
"Since the morning you walked out." Kaitlyn let go and tucked her hands into her coat. "Same morning as you. Same room, same wall, same pale light."
"You died."
"In March. Eight months after the wreck." Kaitlyn said it plainly. "My heart. I was born with a hole in it, and nobody had ever checked."
Aisling thought of the long sleeves, the thin arms, the tremor in the lobby hug.
"I was in a hospital bed in the Larkin house, and Mom was holding my hand. Colby was in the hall on the phone." Kaitlyn looked at the bulb over their heads. "You had been dead for months by then. Nobody said your name."
"And then a voice."
"And then a voice, and a door, and one chance. The same terms it gave you." Kaitlyn's mouth twisted. "It didn't say how to let go. So I found another way."
The bulb buzzed. A dryer shut off downstairs.
"I woke up with 365 under my sleeve and I thought, good. I'll be careful. I'll be so good." She laughed once, without any sound. "Then Mom told you to give me the blue coat. Remember?"
"No."
"You didn't. It was nothing. But my number went to 371 and yours, I'm sure, went down."
Aisling's stomach turned over.
"I tested it for a week," Kaitlyn said. "Your room. Your window seat. The shoes you wore to the dinner. Every time Mom said family means giving and you gave, I got days."
"The video."
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