Page 94 of Single Mom's Undoing

“A hatch?”

“See?” She points to a secret door mounted at the back of the dresser. She removes the small bronze latch and pries it open to reveal a second door—a simple thick layer of woodmounted into the wall. “It leads downstairs into the basement.”

“Oh, wow,” Matty mumbles. “A secret door!”

“Does your father know about these secret routes?” I ask Margot.

“He knows about some, but not all of them,” she replies. “This room hasn’t been renovated since before Mom died, so I’m guessing he’s not aware of this one. Let me see if I can still open it.”

As she struggles with a much older latch, I can’t help but express my gratitude. “Thank you so much for this, Margot.”

“Don’t thank me yet,” she grunts as she pulls the pin out of a rusty wall ring. “Ah, finally. Damn, that hurt my fingers.”

“I was wondering where you’d gone,” Bill’s voice booms across the room.

It startles Margot, and she jumps away from the dresser, while I hold Matty close, turning around to face our monster. Bill stands in the doorway, looking darkly confident in his slacks and grey shirt. Behind him, I see Laura and Wyatt, his trusted goons, throwing cold glares at us.

“Dad,” Margot manages, caught off guard and shaking like a leaf all of a sudden.

“You’ve been a very bad girl, honey,” Bill says.

“What are you doing up here?” she asks.

He narrows his eyes at her. “Well, I saw you sneaking onto the property a few minutes ago. The CCTV system is hooked with motion sensors and alerts that get sent straight to myphone,” he pauses to show us his smartphone. “These things are fantastic, I swear. Technology is moving so damn fast. What areyoudoing up here, Margot?”

“Just moving Clara to a better room,” she replies.

We both know he’s not buying it, though.

“I had higher hopes for you,” Bill grumbles and shakes his head in disappointment. “Take them all downstairs,” he tells his henchmen.

Laura and Wyatt come into the room, both of them stiff and dead-eyed as they approach us. Margot steps in front of Matty and me.

“Dad don’t do this. Come on, it’s gone too far. This isn’t right and you know it.”

“Bring them into the living room. It’s time for Clara to make her decision and tell us if she’s leaving this house on her own or with her feet pointed upward,” Bill decrees.

I want to fight them, but Matty is already trembling in my arms, quiet and intimidated by Wyatt and Laura. He’s afraid of them, and I can’t blame him after how these two picked us up in Baker City to begin with.

“It’s going to be okay,” I whisper in my son’s ear.

Margot yanks her arm back from Wyatt’s grip. “I can walk on my own, thanks!”

I feel as though I’m being unkindly escorted to my own execution. There is no sympathy in Laura’s eyes. No hesitation on Wyatt’s part either. I see their holstered guns. I notice the speed with which they obey Bill’s orders.

As we walk past him and out the door, I can feel his hateful eyes on me.

“And get the property administrator on the phone,” he shouts from behind us. “There are some holes that need patching up, it seems.”

“It’s not over yet,” Margot whispers to me.

But as we’re unceremoniously escorted down the service stairs and into the main living room, I can’t help but wonder how much time I’ve got left on this earth.

Once we’rein the living room, the entire atmosphere shifts.

I stand close to the sofa, where Matty sits. I’m ready to whisk him up and bolt out of here if I have to, and I know that it’s precisely what I might end up doing.

Margot stays by my side, determined to make herself heard. “You can’t do this, Dad! It’s not right!”