The Day My Family Left Me to Die novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: Planted

"Mom?" Blythe said softly. "Why are you on the floor?"

She came down the last two steps with her hand trailing on the rail, and her eyes were already filling.

I had watched that face turn on for fifteen years.

I had never seen the second before, the one just underneath, where she measured the room.

"Blythe, go upstairs," my mother said, without looking at her.

"Is that Millicent's ring?" Blythe said.

Nobody answered.

"She's been in my room, Mom. In Millicent's old room. I told you somebody was in there." Her voice shook beautifully. "I'll get dressed. I just need a minute."

Nolan had his phone in his hand and a hard look at me, and I knew what it meant.

The detective didn't have Chad yet, or the bank records, or the mortuary man.

If Nolan arrested Blythe in the kitchen on one tape, Chad would have her out by lunch.

"Go," Nolan said quietly.

She went up the stairs without hurrying.

Mom let go of my hands to find a dish towel for her face.

I took the cleaning caddy and went down the back hall to the laundry room.

The old vent over the dryer opened into Millicent's room, and as a girl I had heard my whole family through it.

Blythe's voice came through it low and quick.

"She has the ring. The mother believes her... No. I don't care what the tape says, Chad. Nobody can prove who made it... Then do the other thing. Do it now."

A pause.

"I'll handle her bag," she said. "You call it in."

I dropped the caddy and ran for the mudroom.

Blythe was already there, in her robe, zipping the pocket of my cleaning bag.

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