Chapter 13: The Dock

"I came back for Brittany's daughter," I said. "Get out of the way."

Brant did not move.

"Fern, please. Just talk to me first. Five minutes."

"She has a fever of a hundred and four."

"Mom said it was a cold."

"Your mother isn't a doctor."

Behind him, Judith said in her calm board voice, "Nobody is leaving this island with that man."

Ben was already at Brittany's side.

He bent and looked at the child's face, and then he laid two fingers against her neck.

The little girl's cheeks were dark red and her eyes were half shut.

"Breathing fast," he said. "Too sleepy. Brittany, get in the boat."

"Brittany, you will do no such thing," Judith said.

Brittany turned around.

She was thirty years old and she had not told her mother no in all the time I had known her.

"Mom," she said. "Move."

"I am your mother."

"Then act like it. Or get out of my way."

Judith stood where she was for a moment. Then she stepped aside, and her mouth went flat.

Brant said, "Brittany, wait," and she walked past him without answering.

I had never seen anyone walk past Brant like that.

Brittany went down the ladder with the child held against her chest, and Ben took them both over the rail.

Keep reading free with an account. Start He Voted Me Off the Island, So I Left Him Stranded from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.