My Boyfriend and Brother Left Me in the Escape Room novel · Chapter 15 of 24

Chapter 15: Not a No

The courthouse hallway smelled of floor wax and wet coats.

I stood on a bench outside courtroom B with Orin on my left and Dad's lawyer on my right.

At 9:40 Lyla came off the elevator in a white cardigan, with a tall man in a gray suit holding her elbow.

She had washed the mascara off on purpose. She looked about fourteen.

She saw me and her lip began to shake for the room.

"She's here," she whispered to her lawyer. "I told you. She frightens me."

"Ms. Ashworth, please sit," he said.

A deputy by the metal detector looked from her to me and wrote something down.

Then the elevator opened again, and my mother stepped out with my brother behind her.

Mom wore her church coat. She walked straight down the hall without looking left or right.

Lyla's face lit up.

"Mom! Oh, thank God, Mom."

My mother stopped in front of her and held out her hand.

"Give me the statement I signed."

Lyla blinked. "What?"

"The paper from last night. The lawyer has it in his folder."

The man in the gray suit hesitated and then drew out a stapled page.

Mom read her own signature. Her mouth thinned.

"I signed this at nine o'clock," she said, to the whole hallway. "Lyla was on my kitchen floor in tears. She said Veronica had locked her in a cellar and tried to hurt her."

"Mom, it's true," Lyla said. "You saw me. I was shaking."

"My son came to my door at eleven."

Mom turned the paper over in her hands.

"He told me about a brass bolt. He told me what he watched you do when you were eight years old. He told me he has lied to me since then."

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