Page 44 of The Fear (The Hillers of Barratt County #7)

She had just left her children’s father on his kitchen floor. She’d just left him. Like trash.

Exactly what he deserved.

Jessica had been drinking all day. All night, too.

She couldn’t really remember what had happened after the hearing.

All she knew was that she’d lost her kids. Brenton had won.

He’d taken her babies away from her forever.

And her own family had betrayed her, had helped him. How could they have done that, after everything she’d always done for them? Especially Janie. Didn’t sisters have to have each other’s backs and everything?

They couldn’t take her kids. They just weren’t. Her mom—that bitch had betrayed her. How could her own mom do that? Why had her own mother betrayed her that way? Her mom, shouldn’t her mom have had her back?

Well. Jessica had made her mom pay. Made her understand.

Hell, Jessica didn’t even remember how she’d gotten here. She’d just…wanted her kids back. And Brenton had said her mother had them.

Jessica looked at what she had done, her heart pounding out of her chest. This…she shouldn’t have done this. But it was over now. She…she had had to get the kids. Get them somewhere where Brenton couldn’t take them. Hide them.

They…she and Billy could make a family with the kids. Billy had plenty of money. Everything would be okay. She just had to get back home, grab a few of the kids’ things—things that that bastard Brenton hadn’t already stolen—and get the kids out of Texas for a while.

She would be okay. This would all be okay. It would work itself out. It would.

Janie would come, find their mother. Janie could just deal with this.

Janie could clean up the blood. Janie worked at the hospital anyway, she was used to blood.

Janie got off work really soon. Jessica kind of smirked when she imagined her baby sister walking in and finding this.

Janie was going to be traumatized for life.

Well, Janie deserved it. Stupid, fat bitch cow.

Her mom had always loved Janie more, anyway. Janie, the perfect daughter.

A sound behind her had her spinning around, the knife in her hand raised. She yanked it behind her back when she saw the little girl with Brenton’s eyes staring at her now. Jessica shifted to hide her mother from Wynnie’s line-of-sight.

The last thing she wanted to do was deal with nightmares every fucking night. “Wynnie, get your brother and get to the damned car.”

“Mommy? Where’s Daddy?”

“I don’t have a clue.” Still lying in his damned kitchen floor, bleeding out if she was lucky. Jessica was shaking from the adrenaline now. “Get BJ and get in the car.”

“But Daddy said we not supposed to go with you.”

“Well, Daddy’s not here right now, is he? Get in the fucking car!”

Jessica grabbed her kid and lifted her up. Hell, she still had the bloody knife in her hand. She shoved it into the pockets of her sweats.

Wynnie just never listened. She was just like fucking Brenton.

“I want my daddy!”

Too damned bad. Jessica was never going to have to deal with Brenton ever again.