They Thought I Was Asleep, So I Let Them Keep Lying novel · Chapter 5 of 24

Chapter 5: Devin, Alone

The hall board creaked a third time, and then it was the soft sound of socks on wood.

I knew whose they were before he reached the couch.

Devin always walked quietly in this house, even in daylight.

He stopped a foot from my head.

I held still and kept my breath small.

I heard him let out a long, shaky exhale.

"You're not supposed to be here," he said, very low. "You're not supposed to be anywhere I'd find you."

He was talking to the sleeper he thought I was.

I lay there and listened.

The couch cushion sank by my hip as he sat on the edge, carefully, with his weight on his own knee.

"I told him I'd tell you," Devin said. "This morning, I had it all ready. Then your uncle came, and I couldn't."

He was quiet for a moment.

"I'm not good at this. Cal is. Cal says what he wants and waits for the world to catch up. I stand in doorways."

I almost smiled.

"I stood in the kitchen doorway for three years, watching your mother laugh at her own jokes. She would say, my daughter does that too. My daughter sleeps through anything."

My throat tightened.

"She had your picture on the fridge. Graduation. You're squinting."

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