When the Road Went Silent novel · Chapter 4 of 24

Chapter 4: Before Her Birthday

I opened the door the rest of the way and stepped out into the headlights.

Ward moved a half step to my left and stayed there.

Kayla's smile faltered when she saw him, and then she lifted her chin.

"Did he tell you to come here?" I asked.

"Nobody tells me anything." She laughed, high and short. "That's the point. I'm the one he's choosing."

"You're the one he's hiding."

"Not anymore."

She held the ultrasound out again, higher, so the light caught it.

"His mother is thrilled," she said. "She's already picked a crib."

"His mother has been dead nine years."

Kayla blinked.

For one second the smile came off her face completely.

She hadn't known.

She had been sleeping with my husband for three months and she didn't know his mother was dead.

"He said she lives in Ohio," she said.

"He says a lot of things."

Her cheeks colored.

She looked at the water behind me, and the dark cinderblock, and at Ward standing there with his arms crossed.

"I'm not the villain here," she said. "You should hear what he says about you."

"Tell me."

"He says you were never really his wife." Her voice was bright and fast now, the words tumbling. "He says it was a paper thing, a favor to the club. He said you'd be gone before your birthday and then the club would finally be clean, and he'd marry me properly, in front of everybody."

I stood very still.

Before my birthday.

It was Thursday, three days off.

I had told Cade last month I didn't want a party.

He had insisted, and for three weeks he had been talking about a big one at the clubhouse, with a cake.

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