Chapter 5
The next morning, Diane acted like nothing had happened.
She made pancakes.
Humming to herself in the kitchen.
“Sleep well, dear?” she asked when I walked in.
I didn’t answer.
Noah sat at the table, picking at his food, watching her like she was a snake about to strike.
Ethan came in, already dressed, keys in his hand.
“I’m going into the office,” he said.
Diane looked up from the griddle.
“On your day off?”
“Got some paperwork to catch up on.”
She smiled.
“Of course you do. Say hi to Sarah for me, won’t you?”
The room went still.
Ethan froze.
Diane flipped a pancake, never taking her eyes off him.
“What?” he said.
“Oh, don’t play dumb, baby. I saw the text messages on your phone last night. ‘Can’t wait to see you tomorrow. Noah’s old enough now. He deserves to know his real mother.’”
She looked right at me.
“Isn’t that sweet? They’re planning a little reunion. Just like old times.”
I looked at Ethan.
His face was white.
“Emily, it’s not what you think—”
“Then what is it, Ethan? Because it sounds exactly like what I think.”
“Sarah’s been clean for a year. She wants to meet him. Just once. I was going to tell you. I just… didn’t know how.”
“Funny how you never know how to tell me anything, isn’t it?”
Diane sighed, serving the pancakes onto plates.
“Men,” she said. “They never change. Take my advice, Emily. Leave while you still can. Before he breaks your heart too. Just like he broke Sarah’s. Just like he’ll break Noah’s eventually. It’s in the Hale blood. They’re all broken.”
She set a plate down in front of me.
Syrup dripped down the side.
“Eat up. You’ll need your strength for the drive into town. I hear the bank opens at nine.”
That stopped the argument cold.
Ethan and I exchanged a look.
She knew.
Of course she knew.
She knew every move we made before we made it.
Ethan left ten minutes later.
Noah and I were alone in the house with her.
I kept Noah within arm’s reach the whole morning.
Diane wandered in and out, watering plants, dusting things that didn’t need dusting, watching us.
At eleven, the doorbell rang.
Diane answered it.
A woman stood on the porch.
Mid-thirties.
Blonde.
Same eyes as Noah.
Sarah.
“Is Ethan here?” she asked.
Diane stepped aside, beaming.
“He’s at work, dear. But come in. Come meet your son.”
Noah stood up, confused.
“Mom? Who is that?”
Sarah’s eyes filled with tears when she saw him.
“Noah? Oh my god. Look at you. You’re so big.”
She took a step toward him.
I stepped between them.
“Whoa. Back up.”
Sarah looked at me, her smile fading.
“You must be Emily. Ethan’s wife. I’ve heard… a lot about you.”
“I bet you have. Now, what are you doing in my house?”
“OUR house,” Diane corrected from the doorway.
Sarah held up her hands.
“I don’t want any trouble. I just wanted to see him. Ethan said it was okay. That we’d all meet for lunch today.”
“Ethan didn’t tell me anything about that.”
“Probably because he knew you’d overreact,” Diane said. “She’s his mother, Emily. Biological mother. She has rights.”
I looked at Sarah.
Really looked at her.
She was nervous.
Fidgeting.
Scared.
Not of me.
Of Diane.
“Can we talk?” I said to her. “Alone. Outside.”
She nodded quickly.
“Please.”
We walked out to the patio.
Diane watched us through the kitchen window.
“Look,” Sarah said the second we were out of earshot. “I don’t know what Diane told you. But I’m not here to take Noah. I’m not here to cause trouble. I’ve been clean for five years. I have a job. A place of my own. I just… I wanted him to know I exist. That I didn’t leave because I didn’t love him. I left because Diane told me if I stayed, she’d make sure I never saw him again. That she’d tell the courts I was a drug addict who neglected him. And she had the money and the power to make it stick.”
She wiped a tear from her cheek.
“Ethan reached out three months ago. Said things were getting bad. That Diane was out of control. He asked me to be here today. Said he needed backup. That if Diane tried to pull the custody card, having me on your side would help. A judge is less likely to give her Noah if both his mothers agree she’s dangerous.”
I stared at her.
“Ethan didn’t tell me any of this.”
“Because he knew you’d be angry. That you’d think he was hiding something. He’s an idiot. But he loves that boy more than anything. And he loves you. In his own messed-up way.”
She looked toward the window where Diane’s shadow moved.
“Diane called me yesterday. Told me Ethan was cheating on you. That you were abusive. That Noah was scared of you. Told me if I came over today, I could ‘save’ him. She thought I’d walk in there and take his side against you. She wanted a catfight. For the neighbors to see. For the police to have another reason to think you’re unstable.”
Of course.
It was all a setup.
Every single second of it.
“Sarah,” I said. “We need your help. Badly. Diane is going to try to take Noah. To steal everything from Ethan. We’re going to fight her. But we can’t do it alone.”
She nodded.
“I know. Ethan told me about the money. About the note. I’ll help. Whatever you need. But first—”
She paused.
“You need to get Noah out of that house. Right now. Diane told her lawyer yesterday that if Ethan didn’t sign over the assets by Friday, she was going to have a social worker take Noah into protective custody. She has photos. Fake ones. Of bruises on his arms. She’s been doctoring them for weeks.”
My blood turned to ice.
“Where is Ethan?”
“Supposed to meet me at the diner on Main Street in ten minutes. We were going to talk strategy.”
“Call him. Tell him to meet us at the school instead. We’re pulling Noah out today. Right now. Then we go to the bank. Then we find that note. Before Friday.”
Sarah was already dialing.
Inside the house, Diane screamed.
We ran back in.
Diane stood in the living room, holding Noah’s arm.
His sleeve was rolled up.
And on his forearm, bright red and fresh, was a handprint-shaped bruise.
“Look at this!” Diane shrieked into her phone. “Look what she did to him! I told you! I told you she was hurting him! Get someone over here NOW!”
She hung up and looked at me, triumphant.
Noah was crying.
“Grandma did it,” he sobbed. “She grabbed me when you were outside. She said if I told anyone, she’d kill the dogs.”
The front door opened.
Two women in business suits stood there.
Social services.
They’d been waiting in a car down the street.
The whole thing had been timed perfectly.
One of them looked at the bruise on Noah’s arm.
May you like
Then at me.
“Emily Hale?” she said. “We’re going to need you to step away from the child.”
