The World Never Ended novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: The Park Gate

I signed myself out of the hospital at seven the next morning.

The doctor said I should stay three days.

I said I had a son, and she stopped arguing and gave me the antibiotics in a paper bag.

Shane had slept in the plastic chair.

He drove me across the city in the white truck with a heater going and a blanket over my knees.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Brookfield Day School," he said. "I read the nanny's weekly reports for four years. Your son is there at nine, on the playground, every Thursday."

"You read reports."

"It was a condition of the contract." His jaw moved. "A medic checked each child on Gordon's order. I signed off on the paper."

I turned and looked out the window at the traffic.

"I'm not going to say anything nice to you," I said.

"I didn't ask you to."

We parked across the road from a low brick building with a fenced yard.

Children in bright coats were running in circles, shrieking.

I looked at every one.

I did not know my own son's face from a photo, so I looked for the crooked crown, which was stupid, and then I looked for Dean's chin.

He was by the fence, alone, pushing a toy truck along the bottom rail.

A young woman in a gray coat stood behind him, watching her phone.

"That's him," Shane said.

I got out of the truck.

My legs shook, and I held the truck door until they steadied.

"Cora," Shane said. "If Dean hears you were here, he'll use it."

"He already said he would take them from me for one scene," I said. "He has done worse for less."

"I'm only saying."

"I'm only going to talk."

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