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to Claire. As much as he liked Haley, it was clear who was

paying his salary.

By the time Saturday morning came around, Haley had

never been so exhausted. Or so petulant. Snake even slept in

the room beside hers. She couldn’t escape him. She hadn’t

seen any hint of her hostess, so she’d hatched a plan to buy

herself a few hours away from her overbearing babysitter.

“Snake, will you take me to the mall?” Haley asked her

innocent question at breakfast over a bowl of the most

delicious apple cinnamon oatmeal she’d ever had.

Snake was on his sixth bowl. How could anyone consume

so much oatmeal?

He stopped and set his spoon down. Brushed a hand over

his buzzcut. “Uh…”

She nearly laughed at the look of horror on his face. Even

Jean cleared his throat and started working on the few dishes

there were to clean up.

“It’s okay. I’m sure Claire wouldn’t mind. This isn’t a

prison, after all. I can come and go as I please. But, if you

want, clear it with her. I’m not going to try to get a sneaky

meeting in with my dad. I video chat with him every night.

I’m good. We know the rules. And I’m not going to meet some

clandestine lover, although that would be nice, and I’m not

going to meet up with friends and try to dodge you.” That’s

exactly what she was going to do. She’d sent the SOS texts out

last night and her besties had responded in kind.

She couldn’t make a full escape, but she could buy herself a

few hours away from here, in the presence of people she

actually liked and knew well. She needed to tell someone

about this. She wasn’t sure if that was against the rules, but