My Husband, My Sister: A Secret Betrayal novel · Chapter 16 of 32

Chapter 16: The Petition

By the time I had pulled on Daniel's sweater and gone out the front door, the blue hatchback was gone.

The stack of paper was in our mailbox.

I read the top page standing barefoot on the cold step.

It asked the Harlow Point school board to require a second named adult at every pickup for the Pierce children, "out of concern for their safety in their mother's care."

Below it were eleven signatures.

I knew nine of the names.

Daniel came out behind me and read it over my shoulder, and I felt him go stiff.

"It's a stunt," he said.

"It's on the town group with two hundred comments."

I read them standing there.

Prayers for Laura. So sad, she was always so sweet. Claire is a saint for stepping up.

One woman I had once driven to the dentist had written: I always wondered.

I put the phone in my pocket and went to get my children.

Winnie met us at her door with a spatula, took one look at my face, and said only, "Eat first."

Teddy ate his eggs with his eyes on my face, and Bea ate hers with her hands.

At ten past eight I walked Teddy to the front gate of Harlow Point Elementary, with Daniel on his other side and Bea on my hip.

The gate was crowded.

I counted twenty parents, more than usual.

Claire stood in the middle of them in the pale green cardigan, with the clipboard against her chest.

She had been crying, or had made it look that way.

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