Chapter 2 - FIVE MORE MINUTES
Rebecca did not pull me out.
That almost broke me.
“I’ve been here nineteen days.”
“I know.”
“You know?”
“Yes.”
“And you want me to stay?”
“Five minutes.”
I stared at her as if she had become insane sometime during the eighteen years she was supposedly dead.
Then she pushed a phone down the steps.
Not my phone.
A small recorder running through an encrypted call.
“Law enforcement already knows where you are.”
I nearly collapsed.
“They’re coming?”
“Yes.”
“Then why am I still down here?”
“Because Raymond is coming first.”
My throat closed.
“No.”
“Claire.”
“No.”
Her voice hardened.
“He has spent nineteen days making sure the people around him can say you chose this.”
“I didn’t.”
“I know.”
“He took my phone.”
“We know.”
“He locked the door.”
“We photographed it.”
“Then get me out.”
Rebecca looked at my stomach.
Pain moved across her face.
“I need him to say why.”
Before I could answer, the basement door opened.
Rebecca disappeared behind the wall beside the stairwell.
Raymond came down carrying a folder.
Plaid shirt.
Work boots.
Same expression he wore every morning.
As though starvation were a business meeting I had caused by refusing reasonable terms.
“Finally tired?”
I said nothing.
He placed the folder beside me.
“Transfer agreement.”
“No.”
“This has gone on long enough.”
“You locked me in a basement.”
“You chose stubbornness.”
“I chose not to give you land you don’t own.”
His jaw tightened.
“You’re having a baby in less than two months.”
“That doesn’t change the answer.”
“It changes everything.”
I looked directly at him.
“Because he inherits if something happens to me?”
Raymond froze.
One second.
Then recovered.
“Your grandmother never meant for an unborn child to own family land.”
“He’s her great-grandchild.”
“He isn’t a Dawson.”
There it was.
He realized too late.
I pressed.
“So what happens if I don’t sign?”
Raymond crouched.
His eyes dropped to my belly.
“You should think very carefully about how difficult childbirth can be.”
Every muscle in my body went cold.
Then a voice came from behind him.
“You always were stupid when you got comfortable.”
Raymond turned.
Rebecca stepped into the light.
His face drained.
“Rebecca?”
“Hello, Ray.”
“You’re not supposed to be here.”
She almost smiled.
“That’s always been your problem.”
“What?”
“Women keep showing up after you’ve already explained why they’re gone.”
The basement door crashed open above us.
Deputies came down.
Raymond backed away.
I started crying before anyone even touched me.
Not from victory.
May you like
From the sound of another human being saying:
“Ma’am, this ends now.”
