She Steps Out Of Betrayal's Shadow To Rebuild Her Broken Home novel · Chapter 21 of 24

Chapter 21: What Posy Heard

Posy found her mother at the stump at seven on Sunday morning.

She came across the wet lawn in her nightgown and rain boots.

She was trailing a blanket behind her.

Melinda moved over on the cut wood, and the girl climbed up beside her.

For a while neither of them said anything.

"Grandma says Daddy's in a place with bars," Posy said.

"He is."

"Is it because of the video?"

"It's because of what he did, Bug."

Posy tugged at a loose thread on the blanket.

"I know what he did," she said. "I was on the stairs."

Melinda kept still.

The investigator had told her what to do if the child began to talk.

She must not lead her, and she must not react.

"Okay," she said. "I'm listening."

"You were in the hall with me. I was in my nightgown, and you were carrying me, and you were crying but you said it was just allergies." Posy's voice was thin and level. "Then Daddy took me out of your arms, and you left. And he put me on the stairs and said go to bed."

"Yes."

"I didn't go. I sat at the top."

"What did you hear?"

"Daddy and Aunt Bianca came back a long time later. Aunt Bianca was crying and holding her arm. Daddy was talking on the phone and he wasn't mad. He sounded the way he does when he orders the groceries."

Melinda's hands were folded in her lap, and she did not unfold them.

"He said, 'She's alive, but she won't be by morning. I didn't call anybody. If the police ask, I was home with my daughter all night.'" Posy swallowed. "And then he saw me and he said, 'Posy, you were asleep.'"

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