Page 25 of The Amendment

When I madeit to the house, Jim was already there. His gray truck sat in the driveway. Waiting. Warning of danger.

He stepped from the truck just as I pulled my car to a stop. Once I’d made it out of the vehicle, he circled around to the back of the truck, staring into the bed.

“Thanks for coming,” he said casually, as if he hadn’t forced me. Every vein, every nerve, every muscle in my body tinged with rage. What was meant to be a smile felt more like a grimace.

“No problem.” I was going to control myself. Just like I’d promised Ainsley. I could do it. Really, I could.

Even if I’d already murdered him a thousand ways in my mind.

It was just one more favor. That was it.

He was still standing behind the truck, apparently waiting for me. I stopped several feet away, my brows raised. “Ready?”

“Yeah.” He lowered the tailgate. “I’m gonna need your help with this one. It’s pretty big.”

“How big?”

I walked around the truck, dreading whatever would be inside, and when I saw thepackage, as he’d misleadingly called it, I froze.

Before, the black plastic tarp had been used to cover the boxes in the back of his truck.

This time, it was wrapped around a body.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

AINSLEY

Iscanned the park, buzzing with parents and children as I watched for my kids to make an appearance. I was still uneasy with the idea of them spending their afternoons at the park with friends while we were at work—this was only the second summer I’d allowed them to do so—but I was working on giving them each more freedom as long as they earned it. This kind of freedom, this kind of respect, it would’ve meant the world to me as a child.

Still, that didn’t stop me from worriedly searching the crowd for their features when I was supposed to pick them up.

Maisy’s wavy brown hair.

Riley’s playful smile and thinning frame.

It never got old—seeing them there. Seeing them happy. With their friends. Playing. Searching for me.

It would be my last summer of picking the three of them up together. Next year, Dylan would be driving.He’d be able to take them and drop them off, as well as bring them home.

It seemed impossible to me, he’d be fifteen next month. Some days, I caught myself thinking of him as the little boy with skinned-up knees and mussy hair.

Although, most days, he still had mussy hair.

It was all going by so fast, and I knew once he turned sixteen, the years would go even faster. How were we down to so few milestones left? So few holidays and birthdays?

We were running out of time all around, and that never failed to take my breath away when I contemplated it.

Where had the time gone?

Even with the time we had left, it seemed like they were too busy to cherish any of it.

I didn’t want to take their childhood from them. I wanted them to enjoy it while it lasted, but that didn’t mean it didn’t sting.

When they were little, I’d once dreamed of the day I’d accept the management position, because it would mean I could set my own schedule—leaving when I needed to in order to pick up the kids or spend time with them. As a teller, and then as a banker, there were so many times they’d needed me to pick them up from school or attend an event, and due to my work schedule, I hadn’t been able to.

It was the cruelest irony that now that I could set my own schedule and show up for them when they needed me, they hardly ever needed me.

The phone buzzed and I glanced down at the screen, spying Glennon’s name.

---