The Day My Family Left Me to Die novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Nolan Listens

Nolan listened to all of it with the truck door open and one boot on the asphalt.

He didn't stop it, and he didn't speak.

When the mortuary man said, She picked which one, my brother's hand closed so hard on the steering wheel that the plastic creaked.

When the voice laughed and said Miss Blythe called it, he made a sharp sound in his throat.

The recording ended.

The lot was quiet, and the gull had gone.

"I told her I'd choose her again," Nolan said. "In the family room. I said it out loud while my sister was lying in a drawer downstairs."

Heidi said, "Nolan..."

"Don't." He held up one hand. "Let me have this."

He took out his phone and called the detective who'd come to the dock.

His voice went flat and fast on the line.

"Harlan Street, above the tire shop. White male, forties, broken nose. He'll run. Check the bus depot. I want him held on kidnapping and attempted murder before he's had coffee."

He hung up.

Then he turned and looked at me, and I saw him try to say my name, and fail.

"Millicent," he said, finally, to my face.

I nodded.

He crossed the space between us in two steps and put his arms around me, so hard my feet nearly left the ground.

He smelled of old coffee and the station.

I held onto his jacket and cried without making a sound, which had become my one skill.

"I'm sorry," he said into my hair. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I looked right at you."

I wrote on his sleeve with my finger: I KNOW.

"Mom," he said. He drew back and wiped his face with his wrist. "Somebody has to tell Mom."

I wrote: ME.

"She won't believe it. Not on a tape. Not even on this."

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