Page 20 of Wife Number One

I bit my lip. I hadn’t spoken to my sister in years. Not since shortly after I’d married Josiah and lost Hayley Jade. “It’s the first place they’ll look for me.”

Shari nodded. “You don’t have much choice though. Go. Ask her to help you find somewhere safe. Somewhere they won’t find you. That money will get you and Hayley Jade there, and maybe pay for some food for a day or two. But you’re going to need more.”

I knew she was right. I had no other contacts. No other way of getting money. The last time I’d left the commune with nothing had ended with me desperate and foolish.

Despite our lack of contact, Rebel would help me. She was a good person. Even though our communication had ended when Josiah had taken my phone, she wouldn’t send me away.

“Mama?” a tiny voice called from down the hall.

Both Shari and I turned.

My heart broke in two when Hayley Jade ran down the hallway and wrapped herself around Shari’s legs.

When she’d said Mama, she hadn’t meant me.

Shari knelt on the floor, so she and Hayley Jade were eye height. “Listen to me, Jade. I’m not your mama.” Her voice wobbled, and her eyes brimmed with tears. “I got to be for a little while, and I will always love you like you were my own. But I can’t be what you need anymore. You’re going to go with Sister Kara, okay? She’s your mama now.”

Hayley Jade snuck a peek up at me, her eyes filled with fear. “No! I don’t want to.”

My knees shook, threatening to give out.

Shari’s voice wobbled. “I know, sweetheart. But you can’t stay here anymore. You have to leave.” She wrapped her arms around Hayley Jade quickly, crushing the girl to her chest before urging her to me. “Take her.”

“No!” Hayley Jade clung to Shari, digging her fingers into the woman’s skirts, her eyes filling with tears. “I don’t want to go! Mama, no!”

Shari gave a tiny sob. “Take her, Kara,” she urged, her face crumpling and her voice breaking. She pushed Hayley Jade to me again. “Please! Just take her and go. Don’t get caught. Make sure she has a good life away from this place. She’s your daughter. She always was.”

My heart broke in two, gratitude filling me for the woman who had taken my spot but was now giving it back to me. I reached for Hayley Jade, grasping her arm.

She opened her mouth and let out a blood-curdling scream.

I froze, despising that my touch had produced that sort of response in my own child.

Shari shook Hayley Jade hard. “Stop that. You won’t say a word. You won’t make another sound. Not if you want to be safe. You hear me? Not one. Now do as I say and go.”

Silent tears of fear and betrayal fell from Hayley Jade’s eyes.

But not a sound left her little lips as I tried to pick her up again. Shari covered her with a black coat and then urged me toward the door.

“Come with us,” I begged her again.

But Shari had already closed the door, leaving me outside in the frost with the daughter who feared me, and absolutely no idea what the hell I was doing.

7

HAYDEN

When I was a kid, my mother had peeped out the blinds every time she wanted to leave the house and checked the barrage of locks she’d had installed on the doors and windows. I’d grown up thinking it was normal for that mild level of panic to be present every time you stepped outside.

It made you pay attention to your surroundings. To check for danger at every turn. It was a habit that had only been reinforced when I’d grown up and joined a gang.

My mother might have been a bit paranoid, perhaps trying to protect two young kids from the dangers of our neighborhood. But I’d made it a thousand times worse by joining the Sinners. I’d made myself a real target. One people truly did want to hurt.

I had every reason to pay attention to my surroundings whenever I left my home. Even now.

So I noticed the sleek gray car outside my shitty apartment before I even stepped out of it. The car stuck out like a sore thumb because of how expensive it was, but I would have noticed it anyway. Because noticing changes like that was what kept you alive in a town like this. Even five years after leaving the Sinners, I still waited for the pop-pop-pop of a gun, sure that’s how my days would end.

There were no rounds fired, but the driver of the car opened the door and stepped out. “Chaos.”

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