The Wife They Burned novel · Chapter 5 of 32

Chapter 5: Sarge

I watched it twice, sitting on the edge of the bed.

Fallon was good.

She let her voice break on "baby girl" and pressed her lips together like she was holding something terrible in.

She never said my daughter's name.

By noon her video had two million views of its own.

Half the comments called me a gold digger. The other half called her a homewrecker in a cashmere robe.

Joy wanted me to answer.

"One video," she said. "Thirty seconds. You say, I buried my daughter, she wore pearls to the lunch."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because then it's about her," I said. "It's about the house."

Joy put the phone in her cardigan pocket and swore at the coffee machine instead.

The donations didn't stop.

By Tuesday morning the page said $412,000.

Tuesday afternoon, a red pickup truck parked in front of Lantern House and Abel MacBride got out of it.

He wasn't in his canvas jacket.

He was in jeans and a flannel shirt, and he looked even bigger without the uniform, which I hadn't thought possible.

The black Lab jumped down after him and sat on the sidewalk, waiting for orders.

I met them on the porch.

"It's my day off," Abel said, before I could say anything.

"Okay."

"I saw your video."

"Okay."

"I didn't bring money. I brought him."

He nodded at the dog.

"There's a kid in your video on oxygen. I thought he might like a dog. Sarge is good with kids. Better than me."

"Sarge," I said.

"He came with the name. I didn't pick it."

"Come in," I said.

Sarge was a hit.

The boy from room seven lay down on the hallway rug, with his tank beside him.

Sarge put his whole head on the boy's chest.

"He's heavy," the boy said happily.

"Can I name him something else?"

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