Page 47 of The Liar's Wife

“Don’t you understand?” she asked, storming back around to the driver’s side of the car. “I’mhis mother now, Ben.” She put the key in the door, unlocking just hers and climbed in, starting it up. My life flashed before my eyes as Ipictured her driving away with Gray. I pounded on the window with all my might.

“Let me in! Kat, don’t do this. Please don’t do this. Come on, Kat.Please! Please!” My voice grew high and desperate, attracting the eyes of a few passersby, but she just stared at me with a smug expression. Finally, she unlocked the door, and I jerked it open in a second. I sank down in the seat. My door wasn’t even closed before she whipped around and drove away.

“Where are you taking us?” I said, almost afraid to ask.

She looked at me, a mad twinkle in her eye that made me swallow audibly. “Don’t you know? We’re going home.”

I stared straight ahead and watched as she turned on the road, not headed toward Crestview, but toward Red River. I needed to text her parents, to text Palmer, to call the police. We needed help, and I wasn’t sure what help I could be. I reached in my back pocket slowly, sneaking my hand across the side of the seat.

“You won’t find it,” she said, obviously spying what I was attempting.

She reached in her bra, pulling out my wallet and phone and waving them around.

“What the hell? Why do you have those?” I asked.

“You don’t need them anymore,” she said, then laughed loudly. “We’re all you need, Bennie Boo-Boo. Our family is back together. I can’t thank you enough for that.”

I stared straight ahead as the car began to gain speed, my heart thudding in my chest.

What had I done?

What had I done?

Chapter Thirty

Ben

By the time we pulled into the Red River house’s driveway, Gray was having a fit. He was hot and hungry, and I had just a few bags of milk left. How long would they last us? A few days, maybe? How long would it be until I could get away from her?

“I should probably take him and get formula,” I said. “That’ll give you time to get his room ready.”

“Do you honestly think I’m an idiot?” she asked, rolling her eyes. “I’m going to nurse him. It’s better for the baby.”

“You don’t have milk—”

She slammed her hand on the center console.“I’m going to nurse him!”

She climbed from the car, taking the keys with her. I reached to the back, touching his hand. “It’s okay, Gray,” I told him, knowing it was mostly a lie. I had to make it okay, but I had no idea how. She opened the back door, reaching for him, and I shot out of the car and hurried to her side. “Kat, if you’re going to do this, we have to take care of him. He needs formula. He has to eat.”

She stalked past me, carrying my screaming child as every bit of my insides screamed for me to save him. But how? She led me up to the house and pulled a set of keys from her pocket, unlocking the door. I needed to get my phone back. I needed to call for help. I wouldn’t leave Gray with her.

She took him in the living room, the musty house so familiar, yet so different. Had I really been happy here once? With this woman who held such a darkness? I missed Palmer more than I could say. I ached for her, for her warmth, for her brain. She would know what to do, how to save our son.

I was not sure I could ever face her again, even after I got him out of this. Would she ever forgive me?

I followed her as she laid him on the couch. “I think he needs a diaper change.” She looked at me. “Can I trust you to stay here while I get a diaper?”

I swallowed. “Of course.”

She turned away from us, not looking entirely sure, and I heard her footsteps ascend the stairs in the hall. I scooped Gray up without a warning and darted from the living room, through the kitchen, and out the back door. I held him close to my chest as he screamed, running around the corner of the house.

I stopped in my tracks, staring at her as she cut me off, coming around the side of the house. She held a large shovel in her hands.

“You should’ve done what you promised, Ben.”

“What did I promise?”

“You promised to love me, to take care of me in sickness and in health. Then you left me.”