The Beast on Her Leash novel · Chapter 16 of 24
Chapter 16: Wellness Check
The caseworker's name tag said she was a county aging specialist, and she looked like she had been awake since four.
"Mrs. Crowe, I'm sorry about the hour," she said. "A concerned family member asked us to confirm you're safe and well."
"Which family member?" said Fern.
"Your attorney-in-fact."
"Say his name."
"Lyle Crowe."
"He's my nephew," Fern told the porch. "He's also a pill."
The caseworker bit back a smile and asked if she could come in.
Fern let her.
I stood in the hall with my hand on Bram's back, feeling every muscle in it lock.
He did not move.
He had decided in the dark, with his face in my hair, that he would not give Lyle a single hair of a reason.
He kept that promise for forty minutes, and it was the hardest thing I ever watched a man do.
The caseworker asked Fern what day it was, and Fern told her the day, the date, the season and the mayor.
She asked her to count backward from a hundred by sevens.
Fern did it in half a minute, then asked what the caseworker's mother's maiden name was.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of The Beast on Her Leash are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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