Room 14's Secret novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Thursday Night

Quinton came back at eight that night, alone, and he left his phone out in the hall.

I knew his step in the hall.

It stopped outside my door, started again, and stopped.

Then the door opened and the light from the corridor fell across my bed.

I lay with my face to the wall and my breathing slow.

He stood there for a long time.

The chair creaked under him, the plastic one, and I smelled his cologne and under it the sour smell he gets when he has not slept.

"Mindy," he said.

I had not heard him say my name in nineteen days.

"I didn't think it would take this long," he said. "I thought you'd come back to yourself. I thought the doctors would help."

He was crying.

I could hear it, the wet catch in his throat, and I hated that for one second I almost felt sorry for him.

"I told myself I was protecting you. From yourself, from the stress. Giselle said you'd be happier. She said you'd forget the girls and it would be easier on you."

He wiped his face on his sleeve.

"They're moving you Thursday night," he said. "Not Friday. She doesn't want you here when the judge's people come to look. There's a place in Vermont. It's very quiet, and nobody can visit."

I did not breathe.

"I'm not supposed to tell you. You can't understand it anyway."

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