Page 24 of Wife Number One

But she was here. She was alive. If I didn’t do something, that wouldn’t be the case in twenty-four hours’ time.

“Come on.” I tugged her hand, and together we ran across the frosty front lawn of my parents’ house. I put my finger to my lips when we reached the stairs, and silently, the two of us crossed the old wooden porch.

They had never locked their doors. Nobody here did. It was easy to turn the handle and push open the heavy wood, though I cringed when it gave a tiny, short squeak of protest.

The mudroom on the other side was familiar. It was exactly the same as it had been when I’d lived here years before. The jackets hanging on the walls and the boots lined up neatly in rows were all larger than I remembered, a clear reminder that while Josiah had kept me sequestered away, my sisters had all grown up.

All except one.

I couldn’t leave Jacqueline behind. Or Alice.

“Stay here,” I whispered to Hayley Jade, praying she wouldn’t try to run back to Shari. “Remember what…” I swallowed hard. “Remember what your mama told you. Be still and quiet and you’ll be safe.”

She sat on the bench seat I nudged her toward but didn’t agree. She didn’t seem like she was going to run though.

That would have to be enough. I moved silently through the house, up the stairs that led to the bedrooms and around the corner that led to Jacqueline’s and Alice’s bedrooms.

“Oof,” Alice grunted softly, colliding with me in the hall. She put her hand over her heart when she recognized me. “Shit, Kara, you scared me half to death. I thought you were Mama. I was about to make up some sort of lie about sleepwalking.”

I ignored her, my gaze sliding past her to my youngest sister.

Jacqueline’s eyes were wide with fear. But a determination shone behind them.

“Are you okay?” I asked, voice barely above a whisper.

She nodded quickly.

She wasn’t, but she would be. Somehow. I motioned for the two young women to follow me and I swiveled silently on my heel, heading back the way I’d come

Down the stairs. Through the living area and to the mudroom where Hayley Jade sat exactly where I’d left her.

Thank God.

“Let’s get out of here.” Alice shouldered her backpack now that she had room. “We need to get up to the road and through the fence before those douchebags at the fire run out of beer to drink and women to abuse. Sayonara, house. I won’t miss you.”

Alice gave the finger to the stairs we’d just come down, and Jacqueline gasped. I didn’t blame her. I didn’t know what had gotten into my sister. She’d always been a bit unpredictable, a little wild, but I’d never seen her this openly disrespectful.

It wasn’t the way we’d been brought up.

Alice strode for the door, taking Hayley Jade’s hand and pulling her along with her.

I followed, pausing at the doorway to look back over my shoulder at Jacqueline.

She stood frozen, stuck between the life she knew upstairs and the unknown that lay beyond the gates.

I held my hand out to her. “Come on,” I urged. “Alice told you why we had to leave, right?”

Jacqueline nodded.

But she didn’t move.

She was reacting much the same way Hayley Jade had, reminding me she was barely more than a child herself. She needed me to be the strong one.

Which was a role I was wholly unfamiliar with.

“Trust me.” I tried to keep the wobble out of my voice. “I’ll keep you safe. You just have to come with me. I swear, it will all be all right.”

The overhead light flickered on.

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