“Grandma,” Dylan said.
“Huh?” I looked at him.
He flicked a quick glance at the kids. A warning. Not in front of them.
I smiled instantly.
“You know what,” I said lightly. “Dylan, why don’t you get us some coloring pens from the gift shop so we can all color my cast together? My credit card should be in my purse over there.”
“Yay!” Lila bounced. “I want to come!”
Dylan hesitated for just a second. Long enough to glance back toward the hallway at his dad. At Amanda.
He knew.
Then he reached for my purse, pulled out the credit card, and nodded. “Sure.”
“Can I come?” Lila asked again, hopeful. Probably already imagining a small toy along with the markers.
“Yeah,” Dylan said. “Ethan?”
Ethan shook his head and climbed carefully onto the bed beside me. His body curled in close like he’d done a thousand times before. Way past nap time.
He was burned out the way kids get when their parents keep failing them.
His eyes closed almost immediately.
I scratched his back the way I always did. Slow and familiar. His breathing evened out within seconds.
Dylan and Lila watched for a moment. Then they turned and walked toward the door.
“Be right back,” Dylan said.
Outside the room, he walked straight past his father. Lila grabbed his hand and followed along happily, oblivious in the way only a young kid could be.
Amanda and Brian loosened the hug when Dylan passed, and she looked straight at me like she’d only just remembered I existed.
Her face twisted into worry. She quickly stepped back, said something to Brian, then awkwardly placed the candy on the side table before leaving.
Her embarrassment didn’t make me feel better.
But what did it matter?
Lacey would be free again soon. She would step right back into that role of wife and mother. The one holding everything together for this loser. I would hate Brian for the rest of my life. Not even so much for the affair but for hurting the kids. For saying he thought Lacey had killed Zach.
But I would never say a word of it to Lacey.
She had made it clear long ago that there were no boundaries for him. When she forgave him after he was caught with Amanda in that restaurant all those years back. When she forgave the drinking. The relapses. When she carried 95 percent of the work with the kids and around the house and listened to him with empathy when he complained about his 5 percent.
I loved my daughter and my grandchildren enough to accept her emotional dependence on him. As long as Brian kept it somewhat together.
What else could I do?
I didn’t have the power to make Lacey leave him. He’d cast a spell over women that not even the Almighty could undo.
My thoughts drifted to the next court date. I would meet with the lawyer again this week. And this time it would be different.
The man who killed Zach had come for me. Most likely Billy Dustin had told him I was poking around. Or maybe he’d seen me near that motel where he usually stayed. Either way, we had him.
