Page 95 of All Our Secrets

“Nonsense. I want him with me. Besides, I’ll have four extra hands if we go over Sarah’s tomorrow.”

“Good.” Rosie patted my back. “Theodore had some good friends, didn’t he?”

I stiffened.

“Of course, they’re yours too,” she went on.

“They’re good people,” I said after swallowing the guilt down.

Later that night, Silas texted me.

SILAS: HAD A PROBLEM AT THE SHOP OR ELSE I WOULD HAVE BROUGHT YOU FOOD.

SILAS: I MISSED SEEING YOU TODAY.

SILAS: I WANT TO HEAR YOUR VOICE, BUT I KNOW YOU WON’T ANSWER.

I rubbed my chest as if it would make the yearning fade away. It was a good thing he hadn’t called, because that night, I would have answered.

∞∞∞

My eyes shot open, and darkness greeted me. Out of fear, I slowly turned my head left, then right, inspecting the quietness. The nothingness that always seemed to wake me.Again? There wasn’t a peep from T.J. in his crib either. Raising myself to my elbows, I watched the branches move like spiders dancing in the wind. The moonlight filtered through my room, casting eerie shadows on the walls from the blowing trees. I flinched at the crackling thunder tearing through the sky.

The booming sound woke T.J. When he started crying, I pushed to my feet and froze as I stared at my open bedroom door.

A cold wave of dread made me sway.

I shut it.Just like I knew I had every night for the past week. When I started to question myself, I kept tallies, recording what was open, what was shut, and what I’d turned off in this freaking house.

I never slept with the door open. It was a thing.Mything. Something I’d done since I was a child. There was nothing I loved more than horror movies. Anyone who watched the things I did got in a habit of shutting their bedroom doors. It was a comfort now because I was almost always alone with my son. Smaller spaces were more soothing than open ones.

T.J.’s screams grew louder, so I shook off the chill running down my spine and rushed to him. I cooed and rocked him side to side while glancing back toward the door.

The first few times, I allowed myself to think,maybe I didn’t.I convinced myself I was too sleep-deprived to remember leaving it open.Or because I was stressed about leaving T.J. while I worked. Not to mention how preoccupied I was with Silas. But tonight, I was positive I’d shut the door. My stomach rolled as my nerves got lodged in my throat. Something was off. No, weird. I’d searched my house from top to bottom, looking for cameras because I constantly felt watched. Even the comfort of the security system didn’t relieve me.

I closed the bedroom door and locked it, real terror coursing through my veins. There was no explanation for what was happening. Unless I wanted to admit that I might be losing my mind. It wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility with my family’s history and how stressed I was vacillating between missing and trying to avoid Silas King.

With a sigh, I carried T.J. to the rocking chair in front of the window and sat down. I rocked us as the rain peppered against the roof and the window. The storm was a bad one.

My hair slid off my shoulder, and I stopped moving. I fucking froze because my hair continued to move like… Without moving a muscle, I looked down at the strand of hair floating in the air.Finally,I freaked the fuck out and jumped out of the chair with my son. I didn’t look back or even forward. Somehow, I managed to grab my phone off the nightstand before I ran out onto the porch. The roof couldn’t keep the rain from blowing on us, but I was too scared to go back inside. I ran to my car, slammed the door, and hit the lock button. T.J. was crying again.

I shook so badly it took several attempts to find Silas’s number. Gerald and Rosie were right next door, but it didn’t matter. I needed the comfort of one person only. And it wasn’t Theodore’s parents. It was his best friend.

I was so distraught that I didn’t even notice the truck parked behind my Tahoe. Three taps on my window had me screaming, holding T.J. closer. But rather than an ax murderer or an angry spirit standing outside my car window, it was Silas, drenched, standing in the pouring rain, a concerned frown marring his face. Relief hit me so deeply that I burst into tears right along with my son.

Chapter Thirty-Seven:

I’m here now

Silas

The thunder woke me, but it was Peyton, running out into the pouring rain in the dead of night with T.J. in her arms, that scared the shit out of me.

Something was wrong. And it was raining too damn hard to see if they were okay. She didn’t notice me jumping out of my truck as she rushed to her Tahoe and climbed in.

I rapped my knuckles against the window, and she screamed. The sound turned into a wail that cut me in half. I yanked open the door. “What happened?”

The only response I got were cries from Peyton and her little man.

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