Page 6 of Save Me

“It’s all Greg’s fault,” Chuck whined. “He got me fired because Hunt wouldn’t leave his daughter alone!”

Brenda shrugged. “Hunt wasn’t chasing her. She loves him, too.”

“For all the good it will do either of them now. They’re gone and I’m glad. Hunt needs to remember his place,” Chuck muttered.

Hunt walked into the kitchen, stared at his parents as if they were strangers, and then walked out again.

Brenda looked guilty, and Chuck cursed.

“Well, now you’ve done it,” she said, and winced when she heard a door slam down the hall.

Hunt was sick all the way to his bones. His knee-jerk decision to join the Army was now his saving grace. The war between the two stepbrothers had destroyed every dream he ever had. He didn’t know where he would be deployed, but it didn’t matter. He didn’t know if he’d have to go to war, or if he’d survive it if he did. But it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered without Lainie, and she was lost to him.

ONE WEEK LATER, he was gone. He’d taken all of his personal papers to a lawyer for safekeeping. A birth certificate, a high school diploma, his SAT scores, his high school medals, and the awards that he’d won. And if he survived where he was going, then when he was stateside again, the lawyer would send them to him.

He’d left his truck keys and the letter from the university on his bed for his mother to find. He wasn’t telling them where he was going, only where he was not.

IT WAS NEARLY noon before Brenda made her way into her son’s room to sweep the floors. The closet door was ajar, and as she went to close it, saw that all of his clothes were gone.

“No, no, no,” she moaned, and ran to the dresser. All of the drawers were empty.

There was a knot in her stomach as she turned around, then she saw a note on his bed and ran to get it. But it wasn’t a note. It was the rejection letter from the university, and his truck keys were beneath it. A cold chill ran through her, and she began to weep.

WHEN CHUCK WANDERED home that evening from a day of job hunting, she met him at the door, shoved the letter in his face and began to scream. “This is what your war with Greg has caused. He’s gone.”

Chuck’s heart sank when he saw the letter, but wouldn’t admit any guilt for his son’s absence. “He’ll be back,” he muttered.

“No, he won’t. Because he has nothing to come back for, and it’s just as much my fault as it is yours. I condoned your stupid brotherly war. I hope it was worth it because our son became collateral damage.”

LAINIE HAD BEEN at her grandmother’s house for just over two months, and five months into her pregnancy. Her belly was getting round, and she already felt a tiny kick now and then. She had convinced herself it was a boy, and begged her family to take her to a doctor for prenatal care, but they’d refused. She was onto their game. They were hoping she would miscarry.

She called her baby Little Bear, because her stomach was always growling, and every day she fell deeper in love with a child she had yet to see.

When she began to show, the only person who saw her body changing was Millie. Lainie refused to talk to her parents, and after a while, they quit trying. They’d brought Millie down to the country house over a month ago, and the moment Millie realized what was happening, she was shocked, but said little about it.

Once Millie arrived, Lainie regained a hope of escape, and began marking her parents’ routine. She imagined Hunt was already at the university, so that’s where she would go when she got free.

Her father had set up an office downstairs, and worked from home every day. Her mother had given up trying to make peace with her daughter, and wept copious tears daily at the situation.

Millie didn’t hide her dismay at what was happening to Lainie, and feared for her health and the baby’s health, being locked in that room like a prisoner. After a month had passed, she’d had enough.

It was October 3. A day like all the others as she took Lainie her lunch, but when she saw the dark circles under Lainie’s eyes, and her drawn expression, it broke her heart.

She set the tray of food on a table by the window, and when Lainie sat down to eat, Millie put a hand on her shoulder. “What can I do to help?”

Lainie’s heart skipped. “Are you serious?”

“Yes. This is wrong. This is criminal, and I won’t be a part of it any longer,” she said.

Lainie was on her feet, so excited she could barely think. “Can you get the keys to my mother’s car? She always keeps them in her purse, wherever that is.”

Millie lifted her chin. “Yes, I know where it is. I will do that for you.”

Lainie threw her arms around Millie’s neck. “Thank you! Thank you! I will never forget this.”

“Wait here,” Millie said. “I have to get their food on the table. If I come back with the keys, then you’ll know they are in the dining room. The rest is up to you. I’m not going to lock your door, but stay here until I get back, understand?”

Lainie nodded, and ran to pack up some clothes. She didn’t have money or a phone, but she would go straight to the university and find Hunt. After that, she’d be safe.

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