Room 14's Secret novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Left Pocket

Melinda's POV

Zachary came through my kitchen door at a run, without knocking, and the baby dropped her spoon.

"Where's Posy?" he said.

"At the table. Zachary, what happened?"

He looked at Posy, who sat over a bowl of cereal in her yellow raincoat with the milk running down her chin.

He crouched until his eyes were level with hers.

"Posy, I saw your father this morning," he said. "He told me you're keeping something safe."

She put her spoon down very slowly.

"Daddy said only Mommy," she said.

"I know."

"He said not to tell Aunt Giselle. I didn't."

"You haven't," Zachary said. "You've been very good at it."

Posy looked at me.

I came around the table and knelt beside him, and my knees were not steady.

"Baby, I'm asking," I said. "I'm your mommy, and I'm asking."

She considered me for a long moment, with her missing tooth showing.

Then she unzipped the left inside pocket of her raincoat, a pocket I had never known the coat had.

She took out a small black drive and put it in my palm.

A folded drawing came with it, a house and four stick people holding hands.

"It's a present," she said. "Daddy said you'd like it when you were better."

I closed my fingers around it.

"I do," I said. "I like it very much."

I sent her upstairs with the baby and a bag of crackers, and I told her she could watch her show until I came.

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