Shattered Illusions: The Wife He Left for Dead novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Pier Nine

I ran back down the hall and shook Killian awake by the shoulder.

"Sammy's gone."

He was out of the bed and into his trousers before I finished the sentence.

We went through the house with every light on.

The garden door at the back stood unlocked, with the chain hanging loose.

Nothing was broken, and nothing was forced.

"She had a key," I said.

"My father gave her one. That's the only way in."

I stood in the cold doorway with my hand on the frame.

My father had let his secret walk through the garden at night, and now she had walked out with my brother.

My phone buzzed on the hall table.

It was a photograph first, of Sammy asleep in a car seat with his mouth open and a life jacket buckled over his pajamas.

Under it, a message from Chantal.

Pier Nine, the white boat. Come alone. If I see a police car he sails at two. It is anniversary night, Mireille. The whole city will be on the water to watch. Come and say goodbye to him in front of all of them.

Killian read it over my shoulder.

"She wants an audience," he said.

"She wants me."

"I'm calling the police."

"Call them." I was already pulling on my boots. "But not the sirens, and not the cars at the pier."

"She will see them."

"Then tell them to stay a block back, and don't you come until I tell you."

"Mireille."

"She wants me alone because she thinks I'll beg."

"I'm the only person in Boston Sammy will walk toward."

He took my face in both hands.

I did not tell him to stop.

"If she lifts one finger against you," he said, "I will not wait for anyone's say."

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